Oleksandr Bilash

Oleksandr Ivanovych Bilash, sometimes given as Olexandr Bilash, Anglicisation of names : Alexander Bilash (6 March 19316 May 2003) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer and the author of popular lyric songs, ballads, operas, operettas, oratorios and music for films. Laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize (1975), People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1977), People’s Artist of the USSR (1990), Hero of Ukraine (2001). Biography Bilash was born on 6 March 1931 in the town of Hradyzk, Ukraine (now Kremenchuk Raion of Poltava Oblast, Ukraine) to a family of skilled amateur musicians. His father, Ivan Panasovych Bilash, played balalaika and guitar; his mother, Yevdokiya Andriyivna, was a solo singer at rural gatherings. After studying for a year in the Kyiv music school for adults, Oleksandr traveled to the city of Zhytomyr where he entered the second year of the Viktor Kosenko Music School. In 1951, Bilash had successfully passed the entrance examinations for entry into the faculty of Composition of the Kyiv Conservatory. He studied composition with the outstanding Ukrainian composer and teaching professor Mykola Vilinsky. Oleksandr Bilash graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory in 1957. F