Grigory Kompaneyets

Grigory Isaakovich Kompaneyets (Ukrainian: Григорій Ісакович Компані́єць, Russian: Григорий Исаакович Компанеец) (1881–1959) was an internationally recognized composer, choir conductor, and educator. Biography Grigory Kompaneyets was born in Poltava, Ukraine. During his childhood, his family moved to Rostov, where he received his early musical training in the synagogue choir. In 1904–05, he took voice lessons in Milan, with the Italian tenor Augusto Brogi. He was active in the Society for Jewish Folk Music, and in 1912, he conducted the first performance of the opera Samson and Delilah in a modern Hebrew translation, at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1916, he conducted an orchestra of 83 musicians for a concert organized by Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg, the first performance by a large orchestra in this context. In the same year, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In the mid-1920s, Kompaneyets moved to Mandatory Palestine, where he served as musical director of Habima. From 1932 to 1934, he taught conducting and score-reading at the Kharkiv National University of Arts, and at the same time headed the music department of the Jewish Theater. In