Valentyn Bibik

VALENTIN BIBIK (1940, Kharkiv – 2003 Israel) graduated from the Kharkiv Conservatory of Music in 1966 in the composition class of Dmytr Klebanov. Since then he taught composition and instrumentation at the same conservatory, later renamed the Kharkiv Institute of Arts. For a period of time he was chairman of the Kharkiv Branch of the Composers’ Union of Ukraine. In 1994 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he taught instrumentation at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

Since 1998, he had lived in Israel. Valentin Bibik was one of the first Ukrainian composers to turn to contemporary musical language in the 1960s and 1970s, seeking to combine traditional features with the innovations of the European musical avant-garde. With this, he caused a significant influence on Kharkiv composers of the younger generation. His music, as well as his exposure to it, provided younger composers (Shchetynsky, Grinberg) with much information and inspiration. His creative output includes 11 symphonies, 10 sonatas for piano, concertos for various solo instruments and symphony or chamber orchestra, oratorio works, chamber music, vocal music. His late works include Music in Memory of Schnittke for symphony orchestra (1998), Music for alto saxophone and string orchestra (1999), Sounds of the Morning… for 2 pianos (1999), String Quartet No. 3 (1999).