Myroslav Ivanovych Antonovych (1 March 1917, Dolyna, now Ivano-Frankivsk region - 11 April 2006, Utrecht, the Netherlands) was a Ukrainian singer (baritone), choral conductor and musicologist. Doctor of Musicology.
He was born on 1 March 1917 in the town of Dolyna in Galicia. He had four older brothers: Bohdan, Adam, Yevhen, and Andrii.
He received his primary education at the Dolyna Folk School (of the Ukrainian Pedagogical Society). He continued his studies at the Krasinski Polish Gymnasium in Dolyna and later at a branch of the Lviv Academic Gymnasium.
He studied musicology and singing in Lviv and Vienna. He worked as an opera singer in the theatres of Linz and Lodz.
In 1948, after the Second World War, he settled in the Netherlands. In 1950, he successfully obtained a master's degree in musicology at the University of Utrecht. In 1951, he defended his doctoral thesis at the same faculty under Prof. Dr A. A. Smiers on the topic "Die Motette Benedicta es von Josquin des Prez und die Knives super Benedicta von Willaert, Palestrina, de la Hêle und de Monte". After defending his doctoral dissertation, he remained at the faculty as the chief scientific adviser. After the death of his promoter in 1957, Myroslav Antonovych took over the publication of the complete works of Josquin Despres.
In 1952, he studied at Harvard University, attending lectures by Professor of Music Walter Piston.
In 1948, a department for Ukrainian seminarians and their professors was established at the Centre for the Study of the Dutch Language in Kulemborg. In 1951, Dr Antonovych founded the Utrecht Byzantine Choir in Utrecht, consisting of seminarians and Dutchmen, which initially focused on liturgical repertoire in the Slavic-Byzantine rite. Under his direction, the choir performed in the Netherlands and abroad, performing both liturgical and secular works. A special performance was given on 16 October 1959 for Pope John XXIII. On the occasion of the choir's 25th anniversary in 1976, Antonovych wrote a booklet about its history. In 1991, after 40 years of working with the choir, he retired as choirmaster.
On 29 November 1997, Myroslav Antonovych was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of Ukraine for his significant contribution to the enrichment and popularisation of Ukrainian choral music, both sacred and secular, in the world. In 2001, Dr Antonovych was awarded the Order of Merit as artistic director and chief conductor of the Utrecht Byzantine Choir.
Myroslav Antonovych died on 11 April 2006 in Fletten de Meerne (Utrecht).
Works
Author of works:
"Ukrainian Singers in the Muscovy in the Seventeenth Century" (1961, Paris, in Ukrainian)
"Cantatas from the Ukrainian Irmologion" (1974, London)
"Stanislav Liudkevych - Composer, Musicologist (1980, Rome, in Ukrainian)
"Stanislav Liudkevych - Composer, Musicologist" (1999, Lviv)
"Ukrainian Sacred Music".
Myroslav Antonovych. "Between the Two World Wars. Memoirs, 2 parts Kyiv, 2003 ISBN 966-602-062-9
