Ukrainian composer and teacher. Member of the National Union of Composers of the Ukrainian SSR.
saak Berkovych was born in Kyiv in the family of a watchmaker.
In 1920 he entered the Kyiv Conservatory. He studied piano with Professor V. Pukhalskyi and at the same time took a course in music theory and composition with Professor B. Liatoshynskyi. He graduated from the conservatory in 1925.
At the age of 20, I. Berkovych began teaching. Until 1930, he worked at the Kyiv Music School No. 6.
In 1925-1941, he was a teacher at the Kyiv Music School and a lecturer at the Kyiv Evening Conservatory.
In 1933-1941, he was an assistant, from 1947 - an associate professor, and from 1969 - a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory.
In parallel with his pedagogical work, Berkovych was engaged in composing, mainly piano works. He is the author of the educational and methodological manual "School of Piano Playing" (1960), which was used by many generations of musicians.
Works.
For piano and string orchestra - 3 concertos (1961, 1963, 1968), Variations on a Theme by Paganini (1967); trio (1928); for piano - 2 sonatas (1922, 1941), 3 sonatas (1952), 30 light pieces (1938), 35 etudes (1950), a collection of polyphonic pieces. Polyphonic Pieces (1950), Variations on Folk Themes (1963), 24 Preludes (1965); School of Piano Playing (1960), cycles of pedagogical pieces and ensembles, etc. For orchestra and folk instruments - Suite (1964); for violin and fiddle - Pieces (1958); for violin and fiddle - 2 pieces (1956), 5 pieces (1965); for domra and fiddle - 10 pieces; for 2 domras and fiddle. - 9 pieces; for 2 domras - 7 pieces (1959); for voice with f-p. - Duma (words by T. Shevchenko) and others; 10 children's pieces (words by H. Demchenko, 1957), Song about a Song (words by I. Tutkovska, 1957).
