Aleksandr Shymko was born on August 4, 1977 in the town of Borshchiv in the Ternopil region of Ukraine. He graduated from the Chernivtsi Music School [uk] in the western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi as a pianist. In 1998 he studied composition under Yuri Ischenko at the Kyiv Conservatory, graduating in 2002. From 2002 to 2005 he continued his studies at he academy as a post-graduate.
Shymko has been a member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine since 2003;[1] From 2004 to 2010, he was the chairman of the union's Kyiv youth association, he was awarded the Kyiv Mayor's Prize, and was awarded the Gaude Polonia [pl] scholarship by the Polish Ministry of Culture. In 2005 he began studying composition with Aleksander Lasoń at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, in Katowice, Poland. In 2006 he was awarded a grant by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation.
