Virko Baley (born October 21, 1938, Radekhiv) is a Ukrainian-American conductor, pianist, composer, and musician.
Virko was the only son in the family of Petro and Lydia Baley. He was not yet a year old when World War II broke out. The family was resettled to Slovakia, and later they moved to Munich. From 1947 to 1949, they lived in a displaced persons camp in Regensburg, Germany.
Since childhood, Virko loved music. His first teacher was Roman Savytskyi, a Lviv pianist who was in the same camp.
Since 1949, he has lived in the United States. Overseas, Virko continued his education and graduated from the Los Angeles Conservatory in 1962.
He is a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Since 1971, he has been the artistic director of the annual festival of contemporary music, since 1974 - the director of the chamber orchestra, 1976-1978 - the university symphony orchestra, 1983-1988 - the opera house (all in Las Vegas). Since 1988, he has toured Ukraine numerous times. Winner of the Taras Shevchenko State Prize of Ukraine (1996), the first American to receive this award. He is a foreign member of the NSCU.
Balei collaborated with the prominent Ukrainian film director Yuri Ilyenko. The two artists created two films - Swan Lake. The Zone" (1990) based on a script written by Serhiy Parajanov and "Prayer for Hetman Mazepa" (2001/2010). For the first film, Virko not only composed the music, but also served as a producer of the project.
Works
Opera "Hunger" (libretto by Bohdan Boychuk, 1986-1993);
for symphony orchestra: Symphony, Duma-Monologue dedicated to Artemii Vedel (1984, 2nd ed. 1988), Adam's Apple (1990);
for chamber orchestra: "Dreamtime" (1993-1995), a dramatic scene (mono-opera) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra "Clytemnestra" based on the poem of the same name by Oksana Zabuzhko (1997-1998);
instrumental concertos: for piano and orchestra (1990-1992), 2 for violin and orchestra (1987, 1988); for oboe and string orchestra - "The Singing of Orpheus" (1993);
chamber works: "Tropes" for cello and piano, Partita No. 1 (1970-1976) for 3 trombones and 3 pianos, Partita No. 2 (1992) for tuba and piano, the cycle "Carved Birds" for clarinet and piano
for piano: 7 Nocturnals (1958-1994), 2 Dumas (1959);
Etude for solo violin
Vocal cycles
Songs.
In 1989, Virko Baley composed music and was one of the producers of the film Swan Lake. The Zone" (directed by Yuri Ilyenko, written by Sergei Parajanov), which won the FIPRESCI Award at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival. Later, Balei became the composer of another film by Yuriy Ilyenko, Prayer for Hetman Mazepa (2002).
He has also published a number of articles in the press about Ukrainian composers (V. Silvestrov, V. Zahortsev, V. Bibik, L. Dychko, L. Grabovsky, and others).
