Kyrylo Stetsenko

KYRYLO STESTENKO (1882, Kyiv region, – 1922, Kyiv region), composer, choral conductor, social activist. From 1897 to 1903 he studied at the Kyiv Theological Seminary, where he distinguished himself in singing and choral conducting. In 1899 he became a member of the Student Choir led by Lysenko, and later became his assistant. He received his musical education at Lysenko’s Music and Drama School in Kyiv (1904-07).

In 1907 he was exiled by the tsarist authorities to Oleksandrivsk-on-Don for his patriotic-revolutionary activities, from where he managed to return to Ukraine after a year. In 1908, in Kyiv, he founded the Kobza publishing house. Ordained in 1911, he left for a parish near Kyiv and worked there until 1917. Upon his return to Kyiv, he founded and led the Ukrainian National Choir. He also took part in the tour of the Republican Choral Band to Western Ukraine in 1919. In 1921, he was appointed a professor at the Kiev Conservatory, and took over the Vepryk parish near Kyiv, where he died a year later from a typhoid epidemic. Stecenko’s work was strongly influenced by Lysenko in terms of inspiration from Ukrainian musical folklore. Most of his works were written for choir to religious and liturgical texts, as well as poetic texts by various authors, including Shevchenko. He also composed operas (Iphigenia in Turin, children’s operas), cantatas, songs and theater music.