Myroslav Skoryk
COMPOSERS
He was artistic director of the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv. He was awarded the highest state prize in culture named after Taras Shevchenko.
MYROSLAV SKORYK (1938-2020) studied composition with Adam Soltys at the Lviv Conservatory in 1956-60, and in 1961-62 took an aspirant course with Dmitry Kabalevsky at the Moscow Conservatory. From 1962 he was a lecturer at the Lviv Conservatory, and from 1966 he taught music theory and composition at the Kyiv Conservatory. From 1984 he was a professor at the composition department of the Lviv Conservatory and its chairman. From 2006 to 2010, he was vice chairman of the Composers’ Union of Ukraine. He was artistic director of the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv. He was awarded the highest state prize in culture named after Taras Shevchenko.
His students include Yevhen Stankovych, Ivan Karabiys, Oleh Kyva, Volodynyr Zubytsky, Volodymyr Shumeyko, among others. He is also chairman of the Lviv Branch of the Composers’ Union of Ukraine. In 1965, he wrote music based on Hutsul folklore for Parajanov’s film Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, after which he received a laudatory letter from Dmitry Shostakovich. This was an important moment in the composer’s career, which allowed the less than 30-year-old composer to appear on the “wide stage.” From the very beginning, Skorik’s music was a play of tradition, including folklore, with more contemporary compositional techniques. The composer never succumbed to the influence of the radical avant-garde; Stravinsky and Bartok were certainly closer to him than Schönberg and Webern. Many of his works directly allude with melodic-rhythmic material to – especially – Carpathian musical folklore, being its sonically interesting symphonic travesty: Hutsul Triptych (1965), Carpathian Concerto (1972). The composer’s oeuvre also includes concertos for solo instruments (violin, piano, cello) and symphony orchestra, 4 partitas for chamber orchestra, chamber works (Sonata for violin and piano, 1963), a number of works for piano. In 1987, the composer was awarded the Taras Shevchenko State Prize for Cello and Orchestra (1983). Skoryk’s works are performed in European countries, the USA and Canada.