Volodymyr Mykolaiovych Apatskyi (29 August 1928, Minsk - 27 September 2018) was an outstanding Ukrainian bassoonist, art critic, professor at the National Music Academy, People's Artist of Ukraine.
He was born on 29 August 1928 in Minsk (Belarus). At the age of four, he lost his father.
Since childhood, he played folk instruments (guitar, mandolin), later improvised on the piano, and played the trumpet in an amateur orchestra. In 1944, he entered the Belarusian Polytechnic College and the Minsk Music School, graduating in 1948. In the same year, he entered both the Belarusian State Conservatory (bassoon class) and the Belarusian State Polytechnic Institute (power engineering department). However, studying at both institutions proved to be too difficult. He left the Polytechnic Institute a year later, and graduated from the Conservatoire (class of A. S. Kondrashov) in 1953 with honours. In 1956, he completed his postgraduate studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov Leningrad Conservatoire (headed by G. Z. Yeremkin).
In 1951-1953 he was a soloist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of the BSSR, in 1954-1955 he was a soloist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Maly Theatre of Opera and Ballet, in 1955-1957 he was a soloist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Leningrad Philharmonic, in 1957-1981 he was a soloist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Kyiv Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre. Since 1967, he has been a lecturer at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
He is the author of methodological works "Dynamics in Playing the Bassoon" (1967), "Some Issues of Perfect Performance on Wind Instruments", "Bassoonist's Embouchure", monographs, including "Methods of Teaching Bassoon", "Theory of Performance and Methods of Teaching Wind Instruments", "The History of Wind Music and Performing Arts, 60 scientific and methodological works on the methods of modern bassoon learning and teaching, and more than 100 art criticism articles, including on the history and development of wind performance in Ukraine and the USSR. Volodymyr Apatsky's research interests include the acoustic nature of wind instruments, the anatomical and physiological basis of the brass player's performance technique, the production and development of performance components, etc.
In 1989, he published a collection of articles "Theory and Practice of Playing Wind Instruments", which included articles by Ukrainian and Russian leading teachers E. Nosyrev, K. Mühlberg, E. Surzhenko, M. Pushechnikov, and I. Yakustidi. The materials of the collection provide information on a wide range of issues of history, theory and practice of playing wind instruments.
He won the second prize of the Belarusian competition of musicians-performers on wind instruments (1952), the first prize of the All-Union Festival of Soviet Youth (1957).
As a concertmaster of the bassoon group in the symphony orchestra of the Kyiv State Opera and Ballet Theatre, Vladimir Apatsky became a model of skill and responsibility. The sound of his bassoon is light, flexible and quite expressive. He has always performed orchestral solo parts in a rather moderate manner, both phraseologically and dynamically. He achieved a particularly expressive mastery in the ballets of Tchaikovsky. He recorded about 40 discs, including solo ones, and there are a large number of stock recordings of his performances.
Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, People's Artist of Ukraine (1995), Doctor of Arts (1993), Professor of the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine (1986), Corresponding Member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts (1997). He has trained more than 70 competition winners, among his graduates are Y. Dondakov, O. Klitschevskyi, M. Kostiuk, T. Osadchyi and others. Vice-President of the Union of Brass Musicians of Ukraine, member of the International Double Reed Society. Member of the jury of many music competitions: International Competition for Young Performers on Wooden Wind Instruments named after D. Bida (Lviv), International Competition for Young Performers on Wind and Percussion Instruments "Trumpets of Bukovyna" (Chernivtsi), Classical Meridian (Kyiv), International Music Competition named after Viacheslav Starchenko (Rivne), etc.
He was awarded the Order of Merit of the II (2011) and III (2006) degrees, the Order of Courage of the III degree (1999), the medal "To the Defender of the Fatherland" (1999), the Gold Medal of the AUA "For Outstanding Achievements in Musical Art" (2008).
