Mykola Leontovych
Leontovych was born and raised in Monastyrok in the Podolia province of the Russian Empire (now in Vinnytsia Oblast, Western Ukraine).
[4] Leontovych father, who directed a school choir, and was skilled at playing the cello, double bass, harmonium, violin, and guitar, gave Mykola his first musical lessons.
[7] Whilst studying at the seminary, Leontovych continued to advance his skills on the violin, and learned to play other instruments, including the flute and the harmonium.
[8] He studied music theory under Y. Bogdanov and started writing choral arrangements, including "Oy z-za hory kamʺyanoyi ("Oh, from the stony mountain"), Oy pidu ya v lis po drova ("Oh, I’ll go to a forest for firewood"), and, Mala maty odnu dochku ("A mother has one daughter').
[9] One of the last performances conducted at the seminary by Leontovych was a concert on 26 May 1899, when his friends wrote on a photograph: "To the future glorious composer".
[8] Leontovych's first teaching post, which commenced in September 1899, involved working as a teacher of singing and arithmetic at a secondary school in the village of Chukiv [uk] (present-day Vinnytsia Oblast).
"[10] When he later became a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory, he wrote a book about his early experiences,Yak ya orhanizuvav orkestr u silʹsʹkiy shkoli (How I Organised an Orchestra in a Village School).
[11] On 4 March 1901, after disagreements arose between Leontovych and the school's administrators, he obtained a teaching post at the Theological College in Tyvriv, where he instructed students in church music and calligraphy.
[16] During 1903/04, Leontovych attended lectures held at the St. Petersburg Court Capella, where he studied music theory, harmony, polyphony, and choral performance.
[11] In the autumn of 1904, he began working as a singing teacher in Grishino (now Pokrovsk, Ukraine), a railway town in the Donetsk region.
Leontovych organised a choir of workers, who sang arrangements of Ukrainian, Jewish, Armenian, Russian, and Polish folk songs.
He created a small orchestra to accompany the soloists, and prepared a repertoire of works by the Ukrainian composers Mykola Lysenko and Petro Nishchynsky.
Leontovych's activity caused a deterioration in his relationship with the authorities, and in the spring of 1908, he was forced to leave his post and move back to Tulchyn.
[15] Leontovych's choir performed works by Russian composers Mikhail Glinka, Alexey Verstovsky, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, as well as music by Stetsenko, Lysenko, and Nishchynsky.
[11] He became involved with the theatrical music scene in Tulchyn, and took charge of the local branch of the Prosvita, a Ukrainian society dedicated to preserving and developing its culture and education.
[18] During the October Revolution and the establishment of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918, Leontovych relocated without his family to Kyiv, where he was active as both a conductor and composer.
[5][11] Early in the morning of 23 January 1921, Leontovych was shot by a chekist (Soviet state security agent) Afanasy Hrishchenko.
These range from artistic arrangements of folk songs, religious works (including his liturgy), cantatas, and compositions set to the words of Ukrainian poets.
[1] As a person with a professional theological education, Leontovych kept up with the movement of the establishment and recognition of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, which was reestablished in 1918.
[citation needed] Leontovych's works form this time included На воскресіння Христа (On the Resurrection of Christ), Хваліте ім’я Господнє (Praise ye the Name of the Lord), and Світе тихий (Oh Quiet Light), among others.
A milestone in the development of Ukrainian spiritual music was the composition of his liturgy, which was first performed in the St. Nicholas Military Cathedral at the Kyiv, Pechersk on 22 May 1919.
[29] Leontovych's best critic was his friend, and fellow priest and composer Stetsenko, who described him as "a great expert of both choral singing and theoretical studies".
[26] During a concert, Leontovych's Lehenda, set to lyrics by the Ukrainian poet Mykola Voronyi, gained great popularity.
[5] After reviewing the composer's Second Compilation of Songs from Podolia, Lysenko wrote:[citation needed] Leontovych has an original, illustrious gift.
The Canadian Oleksandr Koshyts Choir, based in Winnipeg, performs music by Leontovych and other Ukrainian composers, and has made a recording of his works.
[citation needed] On 1 February 1921, nine days after Leontovych's death, artists, academics, and students of the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama in Kyiv gathered to commemorate him.
During this event, the city held a ceremonial opening of a memorial plaque to the composer, placed next to the old building formerly used by the Podollia Theological Seminary.
