Musicians - Myroslav Skoryk

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	Musicians - Myroslav Skoryk

Myroslav Skoryk (born 12 July 1938 in Lviv, Ukraine) is a famed Ukrainian composer with a very diverse and impressive oeuvre. His music is in contemporary style but borrows from Ukrainian folk literature and opera.

Biography

Myroslav Skoryk was born on July 13, 1938 in Western Ukraine’s main city of Lviv, which at that time belonged to Poland. His parents were both educated in Austria at the University of Vienna and both subsequently became educators. His father was a historian and an ethnographist, while his mother was an accomplished chemist. Although his parents did not have special musical training, his mother played piano and his father played the violin. Their son, young Myroslav, was exposed to music in the household from an early age and took a particular liking to it. Although his parents influenced Myroslav's early interest in music, no less important was the fact that in his family was a very famous diva of the 20th century, Myroslav Skoryk's great aunt was the famous Ukrainian soprano Solomea Krushelnitzka.

In 1947, Stalin's system of ethnic cleansing was reinstated in Western Ukraine as well as in the other former soviet republics. Stalin’s regime focused on the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian intelligentsia, many of which were educated in foreign countries and possessed a broader outlook on the world and strong nationalistic feelings towards their own country; This first assault on the Ukrainian intelligentsia preceded the general attack on the peasantry. Stalin clearly understood that the essence of Ukrainian nationhood was contained in the intelligentsia who articulated it. During this time there were hundreds upon hundreds of railroad transports to Siberia where a great number of Ukrainians were loaded onto cattle cars and deported; Thousands were shot, and many more sent to labor camps or deported – a figure of up to two million is usually given.

In 1953, Stalin's death resulted in a thaw throughout the Soviet Union. Orest Subtelny writes: “Stalin’s death introduced a new era in Soviet history. Exhausting, wasteful, and irrational, the dictator’s method of ruling by terror and duress could not be maintained indefinitely. Even the Soviet elite yearned for change. The need for a general relaxation of Stalin’s rigid controls was obvious and pressing. It was essential that the people of the USSR finally derive appreciable material benefits from the vast political and economic power the Soviet state had amassed. But as the Kremlin cautiously relaxed its grip, issues that had been apparently resolved earlier reemerged and the quest by Stalin’s successors for new solutions often created new problems. Although the retreat from Stalinism and the search for fresh approaches to the building of communism were evident in all the republics of the Soviet Union, in Ukraine these changes were especially numerous and noteworthy.

Subtelny continues:

“For the millions of Ukrainians incarcerated in the Siberian forced labor camps, de-Stalinization brought an unexpected reprieve: many of them were amnestied and allowed to return to their homes.”

As a result, in 1955, Skoryk and his family were permitted to return to Lviv which enabled the teenager the opportunity to finish middle school and a seven year course in music school focusing on the violin and piano. Skoryk immediately enrolled in the Lviv Conservatory’s history and theory department and presented his piano works as an entrance exam.

At the conservatory, Skoryk received a solid foundation in composition and theory. Skoryk states “My teachers were well known composers and educators, including Stanyslav Liudkevych (1879-1979), a graduate of the Vienna Conservatory, Roman Simovych b. 1901- a graduate from the Prague Conservatory in 1933, and Adam Soltys (1890-1968), a graduate of the Berlin Conservatory.” Skoryk’s final exam piece was a Cantata Vesna – Spring, on verses of Ivan Franko (1856-1916) for soloists, mixed choir and symphonic orchestra. Skoryk also wrote some piano music during this time, including a cycle of piano pieces V Karpatakh - In Carpathian Mountains and the Piano Sonata in C thus evoking a predilection toward this genre that subsequently gave him recognition and, to some extent, determined his creative direction.

In 1960, Skoryk enrolled in the postgraduate research program at the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with the celebrated composer Dmitri Kabelevsky. During this time, Skoryk composed music in a vast array of styles: symphonic, chamber, and vocal. Some works from this period include the Suite in D Major for Strings, Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano, and Partita No. 1 for Strings which soon became a popular piece. In addition, Skoryk also wrote several piano works such as the Variations, Blues, and the Burlesque which gained much popularity and has been widely performed throughout concert halls around the world. His Burlesque came to be a required work in piano competitions, most notably the Vladimir Horowitz Piano Competition in Kiev, Ukraine, and as pedagogical practice.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Myroslav Skoryk ]

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