Between 2008 and 2013, Bondarev was very active in Ukraine, Russia and Poland taking part in major Jazz festivals and concert tours. He is a member of the famous Ukrainian Jazz band Acoustic Quartet and Magnifika group. Since 2007, he has participated in various international music contests and festivals in Russia and Ukraine. In 2010 he won the grand prize at MuzEnergo Festival, Usadba Jazz Festival and the First Award at International Contest of Young Jazz Performers named after Kim Nazaretov (Rostov-on-Don) in 2011. Since 2013 Bondarev has been based in Berlin where he undertook both Batchelor and Master studies at the Jazz Institut Berlin (JIB) with Gerard Presencer, Tom Arthurs, Martin Auer and Sebastian Studnitzky, as well as John Hollenbeck, Greg Cohen, Geoffroy De Masure, Julia Hulsmann, Tino Derado, Guilherme Castro and Javier Reyes. He received the Deutschlandstipendium in 2017 as well as the JIB-Jazz-Preis der Karl Hofer Gesellschaft in 2015 for the Bondarev/Osypov Quintet. Bondarev’s own group, the Dima Bondarev Quintet, has performed at festivals all around Europe including the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy, Xjazz Festival in Germany, Jazz nad Odra in Poland, Jazz Bez in Ukraine and Poland and Jazz à Montauban in France. His debut Album “I’m Wondering” won the 2nd price of ’50th Jazz and Odra festival’ in Wroclaw (Poland, 2014), the 1st Price of Festival de Jazz à Montauban (France, 2014), and the JIB-Jazz-Preis 2015 Der Karl Hofer Gesellschaft Gestiftet von Toni und Albrecht Kumm. The band was also presented at the Umbria Jazz Festival as a special guest. As a sideman Dima has collaborated with Greg Cohen, Joey Baron, Conrad Herwig, Steve Turre, Nels Cline, Jim Black, Dana Hall, NDR Big Band, Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Josh Ginsburg, Wanja Slavin, Elias Stemeseder and many others.