Oleksandr Koshyts

OLEKSANDR KOSHYTS conductor, composer, folklorist, pedagogue. The son of an Orthodox priest, he graduated from the Kyiv Theological Seminary in 1896 and the Kyiv Theological Academy in 1901, where he was conductor of the academic choir from 1898 to 1901. In 1906 he entered the Lysenko Music and Drama School, where he studied composition with H. Lubomirsky.

After graduating in 1910, Koshyts becomes conductor of the University Choir, is then music director of the Sadovsky Theater, teaches at the Kyiv Conservatory and in 1916-17 becomes choirmaster and conductor of the Kyiv Opera. In 1919, he is one of the organizers of the Republican Choral Band. Also in that year, at the behest of the Directory and Government of the People’s Republic of Ukraine – the newly formed Ukrainian state – he goes on a world tour with the Band as conductor, giving concerts in Western European countries, as well as North and South America, and informing the world about Ukraine and its culture. From this very successful tour, which lasted from 1919-24, he no longer returns to Soviet Ukraine. As a composer, he devoted himself mainly to religious choral music (5 Liturgies, parts of masses, carols).