Ukraine on Music Theory Print

Alemdar Karamanov

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Alemdar Sabitovich Karamanov (10 September 19343 May 2007) was a composer. Biography Karamanov was born on September 10, 1934, in Simferopol, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. His father, Sabit Temel Kağırman, of Turkish origin, left Turkey and emigrated to Crimea. His mother, Paulina Sergeyevna, was a Russian singer and librarian and taught him music. In 1992, he composed the anthem of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Karamanov died on 3 May 2007, in Simferopol. Honours The minor planet 4274 Karamanov, discovered in 1980 by Nikolai Chernykh, is named in his honour. Notes References

Alexander Shchetynsky

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Alexander Shchetynsky (Shchetinsky) (; ; Aleksandr Stepanovich Shchetins’kiy) is a Ukrainian composer. Born on 22 June 1960 in Kharkiv, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. His work list includes compositions in various forms ranging from solo instrumental to orchestral, choral pieces and operas. Education and influences Shchetynsky graduated from the Kharkiv Art Institute in 1983. Although he studied composition officially with Valentyn Borysov, another Ukrainian composer, Valentyn Bibik, strongly influenced him in those formative years. Another important source of inspiration was so called Soviet musical avant-garde: Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov. Later Shchetynsky participated in master classes with Edison Denisov and Poul Ruders in Denmark, and summer courses in Poland, where he attended lectures by Louis Andriessen, Witold Lutosławski, Krzysztof Penderecki, Boguslaw Schaeffer, and Magnus Lindberg. Music of the Second Viennese School, Olivier Messiaen, and György Ligeti had a significant impact on Shchetynsky. (for chamber opera Annunciation in frame of the performance Voices of the Invisible – The Bible Triptych at the

Andriy Shtoharenko

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Andriy Shtoharenko () (15 October 1902 – 15 November 1992) was a Soviet Ukrainian composer and teacher. Biography Andriy Shtoharenko was born in the Ukrainian village of Novi Kaidaky (now part of the city of Dnipro). He completed his music studies at the Kharkiv Conservatory in 1936 under S. Bohatyriov. From 1921-30 he worked a teacher of singing in Middle schools. In 1926 he became the director of an accordion ensemble. In 1944 he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1954 he lectured at the Kiev Conservatory. In 1960 he became a professor and in 1968 became the rector of the above-mentioned institution. From 1968 he was the head of the Union of Composers of Ukraine. As a composer, he was well known within the Soviet Union though his music is rarely performed elsewhere. He was awarded the Stalin Prize for his compositions in 1946 and 1952, and was awarded the prestigious title of People’s Artist of the USSR. During his long career, he served in many positions, including Professor of Composition and Director of the Kharkiv Conservatory and later Kiev Conservatory. Originally graduating as a button-accordion player and again as a composer. He composed in n

Bohdana Frolyak

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Bohdana Oleksiivna Frolyak (born 5 May 1968) is a modern Ukrainian composer. Biography Frolyak was born in , Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, and made her first musical steps in her native village under the guidance of Vasyl Kufliuk, a village teacher who gained educational and musical graduation in Warsaw. In 1986, she graduated from Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv Musical School after studying piano, music theory and composition. In 1991, she graduated from Lviv Conservatory as a composer. Her teachers in the academy were Volodymyr Flys and Myroslav Skoryk. In 1998, Frolyak completed a non-degree postgraduate course of the same university. In 2009, she attended two courses at the faculty of composition and faculty of contemporary music and jazz of Academy of Music in Kraków (Poland). Since 1991 she has been a lecturer at faculty of musical composition at Lviv Conservatory. She is also a member of the Ukrainian Composers’ Union. Scholarships and awards * Scholarships: ** 2001 — scholarship of Warsaw Autumn Friends’ Foundation and Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung; ** 2004 — scholarship Gaude Polonia from Minister of Culture of Poland; * Awards: ** 2000 — Levko Revutsky award in th

Eduard Drach

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Eduard Valeriiovych Drach (, born 1965), is a composer, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is an active member of the Kyiv Kobzar Guild. The author of numerous songs in a variety of styles, Drach is noted in particular for his original psalms in the Ukrainian historical folk style. Drach was born in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union (present-day Ukraine) and was educated as a physician and still works as a neurologist, his career in music notwithstanding. His first instrument was the violin. He went on to become a prize-winning singer-songwriter at numerous festivals, in particular the 1989 Chervona Ruta Festival. Drach’s musical styles include ballads, traditional folk songs, folk rock, folk jazz, and folk avant-garde. Apart from the violin, he also plays guitar, keyboards, bass guitar, mandolin, banjo, kobza, bandura, husli, and lira. Several of his songs have been adapted for lute or torban by Roman Turovsky. Bibliography * Catharsis – song texts and poems (2007) Discography * Небо України (Nebo Ukrainy) (1994) * Двом Душам Дарується (Dvom dusham darujet’sia) (2005) * Про Славу І Багатство (Pro slavu y bahatstvo) (2011) Not

Galina Grigorjeva

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Galina Grigorjeva (, born 2 December 1962 in Simferopol, Ukraine) is an Estonian composer of Ukrainian origin. She studied at Odesa Conservatory, and in 1991 she graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory. Grigorjeva has received a number of awards, including the Heino Eller Music Prize and the Lepo Sumera Composer Prize, and in 2015 her CD “In Paradisum” won the prize for best classical album at the Eesti Muusikaauhinnad (Estonian Music Prize). Musical Style Although a contemporary composer, Grigorjeva’s music uses the subtle and animated melodic styles reflecting influences from early European polyphony and Slavonic sacred music. Choral compositions are deeply rooted in the traditions of the Orthodox Church and ancient Russian and Slavonic folklore. Works * Poly-phonie for piano (1998) * Na ishod (1999) * Con misterio (2001) * Recitativo accompagnato (2003) * There Is a Time for Autumn for 6 percussionists (2004) * Hocetus (2004) * Valge prelüüd (White Prelude: Imitating Monsieur Couperin) for baroque viola (2006) * Aria (2007) * Ad infinitum (2008) * Schwarz-weiß Prelude for piano and cello (2009) * Nox vitae for mixed choir (2010) * In Paradisum References

Hanna Havrylets

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Hanna Oleksiivna Havrylets (11 April 195827 February 2022, ) was a Ukrainian composer. Biography She was born in , Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR and received her early music education in her native village from Vasyl Kufliuk. She graduated from the Lviv Conservatory in 1958 where she studied with Volodymyr Flys. She continued her studies at the Kyiv Conservatory with Myroslav Skoryk, which she completed in 1984. In 1985, Havrylets became a member of the Composers’ Union of Ukraine. She worked as a reviewer, and then took a position teaching at the Pyotr Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in 1992. She was awarded the Ukrainian Shevchenko National Prize in 1999 and became a Merited Artist of Ukraine in 2005. Havrylets went on to obtain numerous prizes and win several competitions including the Ivanna and Marian Kots International Competition for Composers (1995), the “Spiritual Psalms of the Third Millennium” Competition (2001), the choral festival “The Gold-Domed Kyiv” (2001), the Vedelart prize “Kyiv” (2005), the Order of Princess Olga (2008), and the St. Volodymyr Order (2005). In 2017, Havrylets was elected as a corresponding member of the National Academy of A

Ihor Poklad

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Ihor Dmytrovych Poklad (; 10 December 1941 – 9 July 2025) was a Ukrainian composer. He wrote songs that became classics and have been performed by famous Ukrainian singers, such as “The Magic Violin” performed by Nina Matviienko. He later turned to scores for theatre and films. He was honoured as People’s Artist of Ukraine and Hero of Ukraine, among others. Life and career Born on 10 December 1941 in Frunze, Kirghiz SSR (present-day Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) in the family of a military serviceman, after World War II, Poklad with his family moved to Ternopil where he finished high school and a music school. After 1957 he continued his music studies in Kyiv, at the Glière Institute and Kyiv Conservatory, Poklad started off his career in the Academical Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Internal Troops of Ukraine. Already during his studies, between 1965 and 1968, Poklad worked as artistic director of the all-female Mriya vocal-instrumental ensemble and began to compose songs, He underwent surgery in 2014. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he and his wife lived in a basement in Vorzel for several weeks. Music Poklad’s most prominent compositions combined Ukrainian folk aesthet

Ihor Sonevytsky

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Ihor Sonevytsky (Ukrainian: Ігор Михайлович Соневицький) (1926–2006) was a Ukrainian-born composer, conductor, pianist and musicologist. Life Born on 2 January 1926 in Hadynkivtsi, Galicia (now in Western Ukraine), Ihor Sonevytsky was the son of Dr. Michael Sonevytsky (Ukrainian: Михайло Соневицький), a noted Ukrainian classical philologist, and Olha Sonevytsky, a journalist. He studied at the Vienna Musical Academy and completed his musical studies with a diploma in composition, conducting and piano performance from the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik, Munich (1950) and the Ukrainian Free University, Munich (1961). His family emigrated to the US short after. There he became a cofounder of the Ukrainian Music Institute of America, and served as its director from 1959 to 1961. In 1983 he established the Grazhda Music and Art Center of Greene County, New York. Sonevytsky conducted five different Ukrainian choirs, organized and directed a Ukrainian string orchestra and opera ensemble, taught private students, and lectured at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Rome. He wrote over 500 music-related articles for various newspapers and periodicals. He wrote several music books, includin

Inna Zhvanetskaya

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Inna Abramovna Zhvanetskaya (20 January 1937 – 18 December 2024) was a Soviet composer and musical educator. Born in the Ukrainian SSR, she spent most of her career in Moscow before moving to Germany after the fall of the Soviet Union. She lived in Stuttgart since 1998. Early life Inna Zhvanetskaya was born in Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR, in 1937. Her family was of Jewish origin and was forced to flee their home town after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. She has been described as a holocaust survivor in various media outlets. Musical career Moving to Moscow, she taught piano at music schools in Podolsk, on the outskirts of the Soviet capital, and studied composition under Nikolay Peyko at the Gnessin Musical-Pedagogical Institute, graduating in 1964. In 1964–1965 she taught piano at a vocational school. In 1965 became a lecturer in score-reading and instrumentation at her alma mater. She was released from her position at Gnessin in 1986. Later life After the fall of the Soviet Union Zhvanetskaia moved to Germany, and since 1998 she lived in Stuttgart. During the coronavirus pandemic, Zhvanetskaya was alleged to have been pressured by German authorities into getting vaccinated.

Iryna Kyrylina

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Iryna Yakovlevna Kyrylina (; 25 March 1953 – 4 September 2017) was a Ukrainian composer. She was born in Dresden, Germany, and studied with R.I. Vereschagin at the Kyiv Musical College, and with M.V. Dremlyuga at the Kyiv Conservatory, graduating in 1977. After completing her studies, she taught at a Kyiv Music School and directed children’s choirs. Since 1982, she has worked as a full-time composer. Honors and awards *Laureate of the Ukrainian Republican Komsomol M.Ostrovsky Prize (1988) *Honored in Arts of Ukraine (1999) *Winner of the Ukrainian President’s Prize (1999) *First Prize International Puppet-Show Competition (1988) *International Children’s Festival Prize (1993–1997) *All-Ukrainian Radio Festival Song of the Year (1998–2001) References

Ivan Karabyts

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Ivan Fedorovych Karabyts (; 17 January 1945 – 20 January 2002) was a Ukrainian composer and conductor, and a People’s Artist of Ukraine. O. Beregova considered that Karabyts’ work showed the breadth and universality of creative thinking and an innovative approach to traditional musical genres and forms. Early works by Karabyts are distinguished by the expressiveness of musical language and the search for individual style and the composer’s liberal use of dodecaphony. Most of the early works were chamber works, In the 1970s and 1980s, Karabyts was attracted to large-scale musical productions. Symphonic and vocal-symphonic genres predominate (such as the oratorio “Kyiv Frescoes” and three concerts for orchestra), as well as philosophical and civic themes (including themes of the Motherland, memory, moral duty). The universality of the musical language of the works of his next period was determined by the synthesis of various elements of modern compositional techniques (such as pointillism, aleatorics, sonoristics) in combination with new tonal and new modal pitch organization, intersection of different stylistic tendencies (neoclassicism, neo-baroque, neo-impressionism, jazz). In the

Ivan Nebesnyy

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Ivan Vasylovych Nebesnyy (born July 15, 1971) is a Ukrainian composer and music producer. Graduated from Lviv Conservatory in 1995 (composer class under Myroslav Skoryk). In 1996 Ivan Nebesnyy founded an ensemble “Cluster” which performed music by modern composers from Ukraine and abroad. In 2006 – 2011 Ivan Nebesnyy was a music director of the “Kyiv Music Fest”. Selected works Works by Ivan Nebesny are considered as postmodern. *Mykhailo Verykivsky award (2011)), Notes References Links *Official page *

Julia Gomelskaya

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Julia Gomelskaya (, ; 11 March 19644 December 2016) was a Ukrainian composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Gomelskaya graduated from the Simpheropol Tchaikovsky Musical College as a pianist and studied composition under Oleksandr Krasotov at the Odessa National A.V.Nezhdanova Music Academy (Ukraine), where she went on to become a professor of composition. In 1994 Gomelskaya participated at the Gaudeamus Foundation workshop (Amsterdam) with Ton de Leeuw and Nigel Osborne. Later she was awarded a fellowship by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) for postgraduate study under Robert Saxton. In 1996 she received the MMus Degree in Composition with distinction validated from City University of London. She held a PhD in Music Art and composed symphonic, ballet, chamber and vocal music. She was a member of the National Ukrainian Composers’ Union (Національна Спілка Композиторів України) and of the Ukraine section of ISCM. Gomelskaya participated in international festivals in Ukraine and abroad including ISCM World Music Days (Zagreb 2011, Sweden 2009, Switzerland 2004, Hong Kong 2002, Luxembourg 2000), XXVI Festival “Trieste Prima” (Italy, 2012), Festival UNICUM i

Karmella Tsepkolenko

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Karmella Tsepkolenko (; born 20 February 1955) is a Ukrainian author and composer. Biography Karmella Tsepkolenko was born in Odessa, Ukraine. She studied composition from 1973-79 at the Pyotr Stoliarsky Special Music School in Odessa under Aleksandr Kogan and piano under Grigory Buchynsky and Yelena Pannikova. She continued her studies at the Odessa State A.V. Nezhdanova Music Academy with Aleksandr Krasotov for composition and Lyudmyla Ginzburg for piano. After completing her studies, she took a position teaching composition at the Odessa State A.V. Nezhdanova Music Academy in 1980. She entered the PhD program at Moscow Pedagogic University, where she studied under Gennady Tsypin and graduated in 1990. Tsepkolenko’s music has been performed in Europe, Japan and the United States. She has served as artistic director of the Two Days and Two Nights of New Music festival in Odessa, which she founded in 1995, and also served terms as president of the Association New Music in Odessa and the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Ukraine. Tsepkolenko has written professional articles on music and methods of teaching music. In 1990 she co-authored the book Artistic Games

Konstantin Meladze

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Konstantin Shotayevich Meladze (; ; born 11 May 1963) is a Georgian-born Ukrainian and Russian composer and producer. He is the older brother of singer Valery Meladze and co-founder and co-producer of the Ukrainian girl group Nu Virgos (). Biography Early life Meladze was born on 11 May 1963 in Batumi to Shota and Nelly Meladze, who were engineers. He has a brother, Valery (1965) and a sister, Liana (1968). Career He has composed and produced songs for artists such as Valery Meladze, Nu Virgos, Yin-Yang, Vera Brezhneva, Albina Dzhanabaeva, Sofia Rotaru (“Ya zhe yego lyubila” and “Odin na svete”) and Polina Gagarina. He has also composed songs for a number of films, including Lilya 4-ever and a Russian 2003 version of Cinderella () and Hipsters. In 2016 and 2017 he was a judge at Vidbir, Ukraine’s National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Music video appearances Personal life Konstantin was married to Jana Meladze in 1994; they have three children: Alice (2000), Liya (2004) and Valery (2005). He married Ukrainian singer Vera Brezhneva in 2015. The couple divorced in 2023. The alleged reason for the split was their disagreement over Meladze continuing to own real estate in

Kostya Leontovich

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Kostyantyn Kostyantynovych Leontovich (born October 13, 1985), better known as Kostya Leontovich, is a Ukrainian film score composer, record producer, musician, mixer, singer-songwriter, founder of the label Musicball Records and Musicball Rock School. Personal life Kostya Leontovich was born and raised in Kyiv, the son of Marianna and Kostyantin Leontovich. He has one older sister, Alexandra, and one younger brother, David. His father, Kostyantyn Pavlovych Leontovich was skilled at singing and playing guitar. Kostya received his first musical lessons from him. His mother, Marianna Olegovna Leontovich is also a singer and a music teacher. As a child Kostya, tried almost all kinds of arts and activities – dances, singing in choir, piano, acrobatics, basketball, and even the circus arts. But from the age of 15 years decided to become a musician. Kostya Leontovich married Anna Leontovich in 2012, and the couple had a son in 2015. Career Although he had been performing since he was five, when he was singing on the stage of art school and even was a part of a tour to France at nine, Kostya Leontovich didn’t start playing the guitar until he was fourteen. He received his first guitar les

Kyrylo Stetsenko

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Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko (; May 12, 1882 – April 29, 1922) was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became a Ukrainian Orthodox priest and head of the Music section at the Ministry of Education of the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic. Biography Early life and education Kyrylo Stetsenko was born in Kvitky, in the land of Cherkashchyna, in Ukraine. His father, Hryhoriy, was a painter of icons and was known around for painting churches in nearby villages. His mother, Mariia, was the daughter of a deacon in the same village. Kyrylo was eighth of eleven children. When Kyrylo Stetsenko was aged 10, his maternal uncle Danylo Horyanskyi took him to study at the Saint Sophia Church School, where the boy was enrolled for five years, from 1892 to 1897. The young boy lived with his uncle in Kyiv, only returning home to his parents during the summer. However, since his family was poor, the boy had to work during this “vacation”, and his mother would spend the money that he earned on new clothes for him. During his studies at the school, Stetsenko sang in the school choir and after three years, he already conducted the group. The boy also

Lesia Dychko

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Lesia Vasylivna Dychko (), originally Liudmyla Vasylivna Dychko (born 24 October 1939) is a Ukrainian composer and music educator. Life Early years and education Lesia Vasylivna Dychko was born Liudmyla Vasylivna Dychko in Kyiv on 24 October 1939. She graduated from the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum in 1959 with a degree in music theory. In 1964 she graduated from the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in composition, studying with the composers Konstantyn Dankevych and Borys Lyatoshynsky. In 1971 she studied with the Soviet composer Nikolai Peiko. Career After completing her studies, Dychko worked as a music teacher. Her output includes film soundtracks. She composes for orchestral, choral and instrumental performance including flute, violin, organ and piano. Incomplete list of compositions (Information from the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians) * (after paintings by Vasily Surikov, Isaac Levitan, Viktor Vasnetsov, and Ivan Shishkin), chorus and orchestra, 1962 * Fires Before Dawn (ballet), 1966 * Inspiration (ballet, after paintings by Kateryna Bilokur), 1966, revised in 1983 * The Mellifluous Talker (opera), 1995 * The Red Guelder Rose Tree (Ukrainian f

Lev Kolodub

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Lev Mykolajovych Kolodub (; 1 May 1930 – 23 February 2019) was a Ukrainian composer and teacher, Honored Artist of Ukraine (1973), People’s Artist of Ukraine (1993), After graduating from the conservatory in 1954 he worked in Kyiv. From 1958 to 1960 he taught music theory at the Kyiv Theater Institute, and from 1966 he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory, from 1985 as professor. In 1997 he headed a recently established Music Information Technology Department of the Kyiv Conservatory. From 1994 to 1997 he was the chairman of the Kyiv branch of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. He was from 1997 a corresponding member and from 2005 an academic of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Lev Kolodub was married to Zhanna Kolodub, a Ukrainian composer and pianist. He died on 23 February 2019 in Kyiv at the age of 88. Legacy The creative legacy of Levko Kolodub includes 4 operas, 4 operettas, 2 ballets, 12 symphonies, numerous concertos for wind instruments with orchestra, as well as chamber music and music for cinema. Pieces for wind instruments hold a special place and have been highly appreciated by Ukrainian musicians. His symphonic music is based in Ukrainian folklore and usually carri

Marian Hadenko

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Marian Illich Hadenko (15 September 19553 December 2021) was a Ukrainian composer, singer and television presenter. He was a recipient of the Merited Artist of Ukraine (1997) and the People’s Artist of Ukraine (1999). Biography He was born on September 15, 1955, in the town of Storozhynets near Chernivtsi. He spent his childhood and youth in Storozhynets, where he studied at a music school, and Chernivtsi (where he moved from Storozhynets after graduating from the 8th grade of secondary school No. 1). After completing his military service in the Baltic Fleet of the USSR Navy, in 1977 he began his service in law enforcement agencies in Chernivtsi as an inspector for juvenile affairs. During his service in the police, he graduated from Chernivtsi University in 1982 with a degree in economics. After the death of TV presenter Tamara Shcherbatiuk, who was the author and host of the program “Nadvechirya”, the program “Nadvechirya. Fates”, hosted by Marian Hadenko, began airing. In recent years, he worked, created and lived in Kyiv. He died in Kyiv on the morning of December 3, 2021, of a heart attack. He was buried on December 5, 2021, in Storozhynets next to the grave of his son Volodym

Mariia Yaremak

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Mariia Yaremak (born 7 April 1997, Obolonnya) is a Ukrainian composer, pianist, arranger and music editor. She has taken part in several hundred concerts, international and national projects (including the Eurovision Song Contest), and worked with artists, orchestras and on films in Europe, America, and Ukraine. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she has performed and co-organised more than 40 charity concerts in support of Ukraine in different countries (UK, France, US, Ireland). At her events, she performs original music and arrangements of ancient ethnic Ukrainian melodies in a fantasy style. The works she created for artistic collaborations during the war have received several million views on social media. Biography Maria Yaremak graduated from the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv State Music Lyceum (2012–2014). Afterwards, she entered the Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, where she studied at the piano faculty. Due to inflammation of the muscles in her hands, she decided to transfer to the Faculty of Theory and Composition in the class of Bohdana Frolyak after her first year (2014–2018). The composer began her professional career by digitizing scores by foreign and U

Maxim Shalygin

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Maxim Shalygin (born January 30, 1985) is a Ukrainian–Dutch composer, conductor, and performer known for his innovative compositions that blend a wide range of techniques. Early life and education Shalygin began studying composition at the age of sixteen with Iryna Ivashenko in his hometown of Kamianske (then Dniprodzerzhynsk). In 2004, he studied for one year with Boris Tishchenko at the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory. He received his first master’s degree in 2010 from the Ukrainian National Academy of Music in Kyiv, where he studied under Ihor Shcherbakov and was influenced by composer Svyatoslav Lunyov. In 2011, he completed a second master’s degree at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, studying with Cornelis de Bondt and Diderik Wagenaar. Career Shalygin moved to the Netherlands in 2010. Since then, he has composed more than 40 works in genres including chamber music, vocal music, orchestral music, electroacoustic music, and music for theatre, ballet, opera, and film. His work has been described as combining extended instrumental techniques with a tonal musical language while avoiding avant-garde radicalism. His compositions have been performed at i

Mykhailo Verykivsky

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Mykhailo Verykivsky ( 20 November 189614 June 1962) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor and teacher. He was an Honored Artist of Ukraine in 1944. Biography In early years Mykhailo Verykivsky grows in an atmosphere of love and respect for Ukrainian native folk songs, which influenced his musical work. After graduating from elementary school, Verykivsky entered the city school and was admitted to the bishop’s choir. He continued his musical education at the Kremenets Commercial School (1912–1914), where he conducted the choir and orchestra of folk instruments, played in the school symphony orchestra, studied cello, piano and made his first attempts at composition - he created piano preludes and romances. In 1914 Verykivsky began to study at Kyiv Conservatory as double bass player. From 1922 he works as a teacher at the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama and, later, in Kyiv Conservatory (until 1960, with a break in 1941–1944; from 1946 he was its professor). 5 operas (including Taras Shevchenko-based operas The Sotnyk and The Servant Girl); an oratorio on Marusia Bohuslavka; five cantatas; a concerto for piano and orchestra (1950); a number of orchestral works; a large body o

Mykhaylo Chemberzhi

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Mykhaylo Ivanovych Chemberzhi (, 15 July 19445 March 2018) was a Ukrainian composer, teacher, scientist and politician. Director of . Biography He was born on July 15, 1944, in the city of Izmail, Odesa region. In 1967, he graduated from the Odesa State Music College, began his teaching career at the children’s music school in Izmail. Scientific publication Author of about 60 scholarly publications. Composer of works in a variety of genres, including orchestral works, opera and ballet. Notes References External links * Біографія на сайті Національної спілки композиторів України * Біографія на сайті Національної академії мистецтв України * Відійшов у вічність /Сайт Національної академії педагогчних наук, 5.3.2018/ * Раптово помер Михайло Чембержі /День, 5.3.2018/ * Чембержі М.І. /Сайт “Відкрита Україна”/

Mykola Leontovych

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Mykola Dmytrovych Leontovych (, ; 13 December 187723 January 1921) was a Ukrainian composer, conductor, ethnomusicologist, and teacher. His music was inspired by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko and the Ukrainian National Music School. Leontovych specialised in a cappella choral music, ranging from original compositions to church music to elaborate arrangements of folk music. Leontovych was born and raised in Monastyrok in the Podolia province of the Russian Empire (now in Vinnytsia Oblast, west of Ukraine). He was educated as a priest in the Kamianets-Podilskyi Theological Seminary. With the independence of the Ukrainian State in the 1917 revolution, he moved to Kyiv, where he worked at the Kyiv Conservatory and the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama. He composed “Shchedryk” in 1914 (premiered in 1916), now known to the English-speaking world as “Carol of the Bells”. He was murdered by a Soviet agent in 1921 and is known as a martyr in the Eastern Orthodox Ukrainian Church, where he is also remembered for his liturgy, the first composed in the vernacular, specifically in the modern Ukrainian language. During his lifetime, Leontovych’s compositions and arrangements be

Nikolai Kapustin

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Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin (, 22 November 1937 – 2 July 2020) was a Soviet-born Russian composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most significant figures in the synthesis of jazz idioms and Western classical structures. A virtuoso of the “Moscow School” of piano playing, Kapustin composed 161 opus numbers, including 20 piano sonatas, six piano concertos, and sets of preludes and fugues, all of which utilize a sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic language derived from bebop, stride piano, and jazz fusion. Born in Horlivka, Ukraine, Kapustin was a student of the legendary pedagogue Alexander Goldenweiser at the Moscow Conservatory. He rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as a jazz pianist and arranger for the Oleg Lundstrem State Jazz Orchestra and later the “Blue Screen” Orchestra. Despite the improvisational sound of his music, Kapustin was a meticulous composer who wrote out every note, articulation, and nuance. He famously rejected the label of “jazz musician,” insisting that he was a classical composer whose works were meant to be performed exactly as notated, without improvisation. For much of the 20th century, Kapustin’s music remained a well-kept secret

Oleksandr Bilash

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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

Oleksandr Kozarenko

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Oleksandr Kozarenko (; 24 August 1963 – 21 March 2023) was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, and musicologist. Biography Kozarenko was born in Kolomyia of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. He was a graduate of Kyiv Conservatory where he studied piano with Vsevolod Vorobyov and composition with Myroslav Skoryk. Kozarenko died from COVID-19 in Ivano-Frankivsk, on 21 March 2023, at age 59. References External links * *

Oleksandr Krasotov

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Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Krasotov (5 May 19365 October 2007) was a Ukrainian composer and laureate of many national and international prizes. He was born in Odessa and died in Tianjin, China. Education Krasotov studied at Odessa State A. V. Nezhdanova Conservatoire (now Odessa State A. V. Nezhdanova Music Academy). He studied composition (Professor Tamara Maliukova Sidorenko), piano (Professor B. Charkovs’kyi) and musicology (Professor A. Kogan) and graduated in 1959. From 1959 to 1969 he received master-courses from Professor Y.A. Fortunatov and Professor Nikolay Peyko (Ivanovo, Moscow). In 1969 Krasotov received the title Doctor of Arts. Finally he worked as Invited Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire of Music in Tianjin, China, where he was also giving master-courses. He had many pupils in Ukraine and abroad. One of them is a Ukrainian composer Julia Gomelskaya. Works Krasotov’s works comprise symphonies and operas, musicals and theater music, oratorios, cantatas, chamber music, jazz music and songs. He participated in various national and international competitions where his works have been honoured with many prizes: *1967 he was Laureate of the Regional E. E. Bagryts

Oleksandr Rodin

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Oleksandr Leonidovich Rodin (, ; born 2 January 1975) is a Ukrainian composer, pianist and painter. He is a member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. His works of many genres have been performed internationally. His ballets were created in collaboration with the Kyiv Municipal Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and the Ukrainian contemporary dance theater Kyiv Modern-Ballet. His opera Kateryna, for which he wrote the libretto based on a poem by Taras Shevchenko, was premiered by the Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre in 2022. Biography Rodin was born on 2 January 1975, in (now Belarus). He gained first experience in composition at the music college in Chernihiv, where he wrote music for a stage performance. He was their composer in residence in the 2020/21 season. He has created music in various genres, including symphonic works, choral compositions, chamber and instrumental music, as well as ballets and operas. Rodin has made many adaptations of Ukrainian folk songs, updated classical works, and scored dramatic performances, films, and television series. His ballet Soliaris (2021), based on Stanisław Lem, was premiered in 2025 at the Lviv National Opera). Rodin’s opera Kate

Pylyp Kozytskiy

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Pylyp Omelyanovych Kozytskiy (; 23 October 1893 – 27 April 1960) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, musicologist, professor, head of the department of history of music at the Kyiv Conservatory, and Honored Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR (1943). Between 1918 and 1924, he taught at the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute in Kyiv, the Kharkiv Music and Drama Institute from 1925 to 1935, and the Kyiv Conservatory. and president of the Choral Society of the Ukrainian SSR from 1959 up to his death in 1960. Kozytskiy died in Kyiv on 27 April 1960, and is buried in the Baikove Cemetery. Musical works Operas * Unknown Soldier (1934) * Jean Giradin (1937) * For the Fatherland (1943) - For symphony orchestra Cantatas * In memory of the Bolsheviks (1951) - For choir a cappella * Hello, Spring (1952) - For children’s choir Symphony orchestra * Kozak Holota (1925) - Suite * Partisan’s Daughter (1938) - Poem * Variations on a theme of the folk song Kupala (1925) - For String Quartet * Variations on a theme of the Bashkirs (1943) Piano * Pages of Childhood (1913) * 7 Preludes - For voice and piano, with words by P. Tychyna, and R. Tagore Choir * Spring Oratorio (1921) * Eight Preludes Songs (1924

Roman Hurko

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Roman Hurko is a New York based composer who specializes in Byzantine Rite Music. Biography Early life Roman Hurko is an American-Canadian of Ukrainian descent, born in Toronto, Canada (1962). A graduate of The Yale Institute of Sacred Music (Master of Arts and Religion) and The University of Toronto (B.A. Music History and Theory), he has also studied composition privately with composer Father Ivan Moody in Portugal. He has been a member of the Composers’ Union of Ukraine since 2004. Hurko began composing music while still in high school. His first composition “Ave Maria” for SATB choir was premiered by the Toronto Mendelssohn Youth Choir, at the Guelph Spring Festival in 1983, with the composer conducting. In the summers of 1983 and 1985 he attended choral conducting seminars led by Wolodymyr Kolesnyk, former director of the National Opera of Ukraine. In the fall of 1985, he co-founded the St. Evtymyj Youth Choir at St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church in Toronto. Hurko soon began setting sections of the liturgy for the choir, and in 1999 completed and recorded the entire Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom in commemoration of the second millennium of Christianity. Career Alo

Stanislav Lyudkevych

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Stanislav Pylypovych Lyudkevych (, , ; 24 January 1879 – 10 September 1979 ) was a Ukrainian and Soviet composer, theorist, teacher and musical activist. He was a People’s Artist of the USSR (1969) and Hero of Socialist Labour (1979). Biography Lyudkevych was born in 1879 in Jarosław, Austria-Hungary (now Poland). From 1897 to 1901 Lyudkevych studied philosophy at Lviv University. During this time he also studied on his own at the Conservatory of Galician Music Society in Lviv under Mieczysław Sołtys. Starting in 1901, Lyudkevych worked as a teacher in Lviv and Przemyśl. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in musicology in Vienna in 1908, learning from O. Tsemlinsky and H. Hredener. and from 1919, teacher of theoretical disciplines and inspector of legal entities. He worked with the choirs Boyan, Bandurist, Surma. In 1936, Lyudkevych became head of the musicological commission of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. From 1939 until 1972, he was a professor in the institute named after Mykola Lysenko. He died on September 10, 1979, in Lviv, aged 100. * 1949 – Order of the Red Banner of Labour * Lviv Art College is named after S. Ludkevych as well as streets in Lviv, Stryi, Pustomyty and

Stepan Hiha

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Stepan Petrovych Hiha (sometimes Giga; ; 16 November 1959 – 12 December 2025) was a Ukrainian composer, singer, associate professor and a People’s Artist of Ukraine (2002). Being one of the most influential representatives of Ukrainian pop music in the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries, Hiha combined academic vocal singing with a pop-musical repertoire. Among his most popular songs are “Zoloto Karpat”, “Tsei son” and “Yavoryna”. Hiha was among the few Ukrainian singers of the same era who have never performed in the Russian language. Hiha was a member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine and was the first person to be awarded the Golden Disc in independent Ukraine. As an associate professor, he was researching higher art education in Zakarpattia Oblast and the development of Transcarpathian pop music in the second half of the 20th century. Biography Early life and education Stepan Petrovych Hiha was born on 16 November 1959 in the village of Bilky, Zakarpattia Oblast. He was raised in a family of modest means, with parents who were ordinary labour workers. In addition to attending a secondary school, he also took vocal and bayan classes. After completing ten

Svitlana Azarova

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Svitlana Azarova (; born 9 January 1976) is a Ukrainian-Dutch composer of contemporary classical music, originally from the Ukrainian SSR. Early years Svitlana Azarova was born on 9 January 1976, in Izmail, then in the Ukrainian SSR, now in Ukraine. After having graduated in music from Odesa Pedagogical Institute as in 1996, Azarova entered Odesa Conservatory, where she studied musical composition, first under the Ukrainian composer Oleksandr Krasotov, and later (until 2000) under the Ukrainian author and composer Karmella Tsepkolenko. In 2003 Azarova participated for six months in the scholarship program, at the Frédéric Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, under Marcin Blazewicz. Later that year, the invited Azarova to participate in the Scholarship project pass_ПОРТ within the . This project met again at the 8th musica viva in Munich in 2007. In 2005 With a grant of the society KulturKontakt Austria she elected to participate in the 9th International Academy for New Composition and Audio-Art, Avantgarde Tirol with Professor Boguslaw Schaeffer and Dr. Richard Boulanger (Seefeld, Tirol, Austria). After this academy, she took up permanent residency of The Hague and in 2006 began post

Svyatoslav Lunyov

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Svyatoslav Ihorovych Lunyov (born April 19, 1964), is a Ukrainian composer. He is the author of symphonic, chamber, choral, piano and electroacoustic music. Among his works are operas (“Moscow - Petushki”, “Bad Tempered Songs”) and music for movies. In 2017, he received the Bronze Cannes Lion, for Witness. He is member of the National Union of Composers of Ukraine. He was born in Kyiv and graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory where he studied with Lev Kolodub. Since 2000, he has been a lecturer at the Kyiv Conservatory. The 2020 Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, featured his work New Russian Dances. One of the most representative compositions is Panta Rhei– a utopia for a big symphony orchestra. This piece – is a hymn to elements of live and non-living nature. In addition to that, it is a look at the idea of the emergence and evolution of life through the idea of detuning an unison. Panta Rhei consists of three parts and lasts 53 minutes. For his entire career, Lunyov encompassed all genres of serious music, including chamber, choral, vocal, piano, electroacoustic, and film music. In the last years, Lunyov has explored writing electroacoustic, symphonic, and ensemble works. Als

Valentyn Silvestrov

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Valentin Vasylyovych Silvestrov (; born 30 September 1937) is a Ukrainian composer and pianist who plays and writes contemporary classical music. He is a laureate of Shevchenko National Prize. Biography Valentin Vasylyovych Silvestrov was born on 30 September 1937 in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, then part of the Soviet Union. Silvestrov began private music lessons at 15. After first teaching himself, he studied piano at the Kyiv Evening Music School from 1955 to 1958 whilst training to become a civil engineer. He attended the Kyiv Conservatory from 1958 to 1964, where he studied musical composition with Borys Lyatoshynsky and harmony and counterpoint with Levko Revutsky. He then taught at a music studio in Kyiv. In 1974, pressured to conform to socialist realism and trends of modernism, and to apologise for his composers’ meeting walkout protesting the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, Silvestrov withdrew from the spotlight and began to reject his earlier modernist style, composing the Silent Songs (Тихі Пісні, 1977) cycle for private performance. After the Soviet Union’s fall, he composed spiritual and religious works influenced by Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox liturgical music. He

Victoria Kokhana

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Victoria Kokhana Kushch (also known as Toria Tal, born on May 27, 1990, Kyiv) is a Ukrainian musician. Biography Victoria Kokhana was born on 27 May 1990 in Kyiv, into a Ukrainian family. She began studying music at the age of five. She graduated from the Lysenko Music School, later completing the Department of Choral Conducting (class of Professor O. Tymoshenko) and the Department of Composition (class of Professor L. Dychko) at the Petro Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv Conservatory). Career 2006–2013 After graduating from the conservatory, Kokhana devoted herself to the pop music industry. Her experience as a composer and sound producer helped her to gain recognition, and she contributed to the creation of songs and albums for a number of artists. Kokhana was the author of the popular song “Nomer Odin” for the group NuAngels, as well as serving as an arranger on several of their other compositions. The album became a record holder for the number of copies sold in Ukraine, and was honoured with a prestigious “Gold Record” award by the IFPI, one of the oldest music industry associations in Europe. Two songs from the album were selected for the compilation 50 Bes

Victoria Poleva

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Victoria Vita Polyova (; born September 11, 1962) is a Ukrainian composer. She was the Shevchenko National Prize laureate of 2018. Early life and education Born on September 11, 1962, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Victoria Polyova is the daughter of composer Valery Polyovyj. She graduated from Kyiv Conservatory in 1989, then completed post-graduate studies completed there in 1995. Career From 1990–1998, Polyova was a lecturer in the faculty of composition, then from 2000–2005 at the Music Information Technologies Department of the Kyiv Conservatory. Since 2005 she has been a freelance composer. In both 2014 and 2015 she was a member of the jury of the International Composers Competition “Sacrarium” in Italy. In 2006, Polyova was composer-in-residence at the Menhir Chamber Music Festival (Swiss, Graubunden). Since 2006 the Swiss agency “Sordino Ediziuns Musicalas” has been publishing her works. In 2011, Polyova was invited by Gidon Kremer as composer-in-residence at the XXX Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival (Austria). In 2013, Polyova was composer-in-residence at Festival of Contemporary Music Darwin Vargas (Chile, Valparaiso) Awards and honours Polyova is a laureate of the Municipal Prize “Kyi

Vitaliy Kyreiko

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Vitaliy Dmytrovych Kyreyko (23 December 192619 October 2016) was a Ukrainian composer. He graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory with a degree in composition from L. Revutsky (1944-1949), where he also completed his postgraduate studies (1952). His other accomplishments include: 1949-88 - Lecturer, Associate Professor (1961), Professor (1978) of the Kyiv Conservatory, and Candidate of Art History (1953). Selected works Operas: *The Forest Song, an adaptation of the play by Lesia Ukrainka (1957), *On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs, an adaptation of the novelette by Olha Kobylianska (1966), *Marko in Hell (1966) *The Boyar Woman (2003) Ballets: *Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, an adaptation of the novella by Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky (1960), *The Witch (1967), *The Orgy (1977), based on the play by Lesia Ukrainka Further reading * * * * *. Notes References External links *Kyreiko, Vitaliy, Internet encyclopedia of Ukraine *Kyreiko, Vitaliy, encyclopedia of Ukrainian history in Ukrainian

Vladimir Nazarov (composer)

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Vladimir Vasilievich Nazarov (; born February 24, 1952) is a Russian composer, singer, actor, film director, artistic director of the Music Theatre of National Arts, Professor Gnessin State Musical College and R. Glier Kyiv Institute of Music. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1987). People’s Artist of Russia (2004). Member of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation and Union of Cinematographers the Russian Federation. Biography Vladimir Nazarov was born February 24, 1952, in the town of Novomoskovsk Dnipropetrovsk region in the family chauffeur. His mother worked in a hospital. The future composer was the middle of three brothers. He graduated with honors from high school and music class school bayan (pedagogue Pyotr Martynovich Kostev) Then he entered the Dnipropetrovsk cultural-educational school specialty Manager of the orchestra of folk instruments. He graduated from the Moscow State Art and Cultural University After serving in the Army, he moved to Moscow. Career Founder and director of the ensemble of Russian folk wind instruments Zhaleika (1975–1982), Ensemble of Folk Music (1982–2002) and the State Music Theater of National Art (2002). Since 1984, Vladimir Nazaro

Vladimir Tarnopolsky

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Vladimir Grigoryevich Tarnopolsky (, born April 30, 1955, in Dnipro, Ukrainian SSR) is a Russian-Ukrainian composer. Biography The composer has written music since childhood, having mastered the bases of composition independently. After his studies at the Dnepropetrovsk Glinka Music College (1970–1973) majoring in piano (studying with Mikaela Alexandrova) and music theory, he studied composition at the Moscow State Conservatory with Nikolai Sidelnikov and the theoretical disciplines of harmony, form and counterpoint with Yuri Kholopov (1973–1980). A special role in Tarnopolsky’s compositional development has been played by Edison Denisov, who gave him the first professional advice and recommendations, first by correspondence, and then at the Conservatory he became his teacher of orchestration, at the same time, having preserved a certain amount of influence in the sphere of musical composition, as well. During his student years, Tarnopolsky entered the so-called “Denisov circle” of composers, who assumed an alternative position in regard to the official standards of the Soviet ideology and in the late 1980s formed the active core of the artistic group of the Association of Contempo

Volodymyr Melnykov

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Volodymyr Melnykov (; born September 14, 1951) is a Ukrainian poet, writer, songwriter, author of lyrics and music for songs, inventor, mathematician, composer and public figure, Merited Figure of Arts of Ukraine. Biography Volodymyr Melnykov was born on September 14, 1951 in the city of Chernivtsi. In 1974 – graduated from Minsk Higher Air Defense Anti-aircraft Missile Academy (Faculty of Radio Engineering). In 1982 – graduated with honors (gold medal) from Kiev Military Academy of Air Defense of the Land Forces (Faculty of Engineering Management). In 1987 – graduated from Kiev Military Academy of Air Defense of the Land Forces (he graduated from the postgraduate course and defended the dissertation of the candidate of technical sciences). In 1969–1991 – served in the Armed Forces of the USSR (Moscow Air Defense District; Northern Group of Forces, Legnica, Poland; Turkestan Military District, Mary). In 1991 he was awarded the military rank “Colonel” and the scientific title “Associate Professor”. Before the collapse of the USSR, he was a senior lecturer of the Kiev Military Air Defense Academy of the Land Forces. In 1992–1995 – served in the Verification Center of the General Staf

Volodymyr Runchak

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Volodymyr Petrovych Runchak () is a Ukrainian accordionist, conductor and composer who was born on June 12, 1960, in Lutsk where in 1979 he attended its music college. In 1984 he was a winner of the Republican Accordion Competition and the same year began studying conducting at the Kiev Conservatory where he also studied composing two years later. In 1988 he joined National Union of Composers of Ukraine and remained there till this day. He has conducted over 100 works which he performed in his native Ukraine, and then went to Kazakhstan and France. Currently he serves as a member of the New Music Association and is a founder of New Music Concert Series. Legacy Runchak wrote a numerous works for instruments and vocal. According to «Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung» V. Runchak found his personal balance between the stylistic and technological limitations and the new freedom. In his works one can hear the courage of the author’s expression which goes far beyond the limit of belonging to any composer’s school. Often, the avant-garde means are the only means for him. According to N. Krechko, the composer focuses on complex dissonant language, musical expression, innovative techniques asso

Yuliy Meitus

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Yuliy Serhiyovych Meitus (; 28 January 1903 – 2 April 1997, Kyiv), was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, considered the founder of the Ukrainian Soviet opera. His early style was modernistic, later he used more traditional neo-Romantic idioms. Meitus was born in Yelysavethrad to a Jewish family. In 1919 he graduated from the School of Music in piano from Heinrich Neuhaus, and from the Kharkiv Institute of Music and Drama in the composition class of C. Bogatyrenko in 1931. During World War II he was evacuated to the Turkmen SSR. Meitus made his debut in film in 1932. He is famous for his 18 operas, a number of orchestral works and about 300 songs on Ukrainian and Russian classical poems, among them Stolen Happiness, the epic Yaroslav the Wise, Daughter of the Wind, Leila and Majnun, The Young Guard and Abakan. He was buried in the Baikove Cemetery. Awards and honors * Honored Art Worker of the Turkmen SSR (1944) * Honored Art Worker of the Ukrainian SSR (1948) * Stalin Prize, 2nd class (1951) * Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1960, 1971) * People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1973) * Order of Friendship of Peoples (1983) * Shevchenko National Prize (1991) * Medal “For Labour

Yuriy Oliynyk

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Yuriy Oleksiiovych Oliynyk (December 1, 1931 – September 13, 2021) was a composer, concert pianist, and professor of music who lived and worked in the United States. Biography Yuriy Oliynyk was born in Ternopil, Ukraine. He was the son of a Ukrainian lawyer and started studying piano at the age of seven. During World War II, his family was forced to flee from their home to Austria, and later Germany. In 1950, Oliynyk emigrated to the United States. He received a degree in piano as a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music and a degree in musicology as a Master of Arts from the Case Western Reserve University. Oliynyk was a trained music teacher; he worked at the American River College in Sacramento, California. He was the first president of the Ukrainian Heritage Club of Northern California. Works Oliynyk has composed four concertos for bandura and orchestra, a piano concerto and other pieces for piano, bandura, and voice. Together with his wife Ola Herasymenko, he has performed his works, along with other works of famous classical composers, across the US and Europe. His music has been performed by other musicians and has been recorded onto CDs. In October 2000 a Worl

Zhanna Kolodub

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Zhanna Yukhymivna Kolodub (; 1 January 1930 – 28 August 2025) was a Ukrainian composer and teacher, beginning as lecturer at the Kyiv Conservatory in 1952 and as professor from 1997. Her major compositions are ballets and orchestral works; she also wrote vocal compositions, chamber music, piano works and film scores. Her work has been described as having “fearless emotionalism and melodic clarity”. In 2010 she received the gold medal from the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine. Work Kolodub’s major compositions are the ballets Snow Queen and Adventures of Vesnianka, the orchestral piece Lyrical Scenes of Kiev, Pictures of Nature for chamber orchestra, works for string orchestra, piano music, a wind quartet and other chamber music especially for winds. Vocal compositions include choral music, musicals, songs and film scores. Further reading * Алексеева С. Наша Жанна Колодуб Our Zhanna Kolodub . // Розповіді про музику Stories About Music .— К., 1980. * Клин В Klyn, B . Фортепіанні концерти Piano Concerts // Музика Music .— 1974.— No. 3. * Черкашина-Губаренко М. Cherkashina-Gubarenko, M. Творчі дебюти Жанни Колодуб Creative Debuts of Zhanna Kolodub .— К., 1999. * Муха, Антон. Композ