Semen Mykhailovych Arbit (23 July 1921, Akerman (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi), Odesa Oblast) - 11 August 1986, Lviv) was a Ukrainian Soviet opera conductor and teacher. He is an Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1972). Diploma winner of a number of republican competitions.
Biography.
Graduated from the conducting faculty of the Lviv Conservatory in 1951 (class of Isaak Pain). 1948-52 - choirmaster (from 1949 - chief), 1953-58 and from 1960 - conductor of the Lviv, 1958-60 - Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatres.
Since 1960 he has been a lecturer at the Lviv Conservatory, and from 1951-71 he was the organiser and director of the Lviv Polytechnic Institute's amateur symphony orchestra (8 gold medals at all-Union and republican competitions).
He has directed about 50 productions, including: Marusya Boguslavka by Anatolii Svechnikov (1953), Orysia by Anatolii Kos-Anatolskyi (1964, premiere), The Path of Thunder and Seven Beauties by Kara Karaeva, "The Legend of Love by Arif Melikov (all in 1963), Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian (1965), The Three Musketeers by Veniamin Basner (1966), and the opera Revived May by Vitaliy Hubarenko (1975), among others. Semen Arbit is the author of a symphonic score to music by Johann Strauss ("The Grand Waltz", choreographed by Mykola Tregubov, 1978).
He has toured Kyiv, Tbilisi, Baku and other cities. He is the author of original editions of ballet performances "Antony and Cleopatra" by Eduard Lazarev, "Esmeralda" by C. Pouni, etc. His last performance was "Swan Lake" by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (choreographed by G. Isupova, 1985).
He was buried in the Jewish part of the Yaniv cemetery.
