Volodymyr Bozhyk (*27 December 1908, Rava-Ruska, Lviv Oblast - †9 January 1991, Los Angeles, USA) was a Ukrainian choral conductor, composer, singer and bandura player.
From his biography
He was born on 27 December 1908 in the town of Rava-Ruska (now a town of district significance in Zhovkva district, Lviv region), in the family of tax inspector Mykhailo Bozhyk and his wife Pavlyna.
He graduated from the Rava-Ruska gymnasium. He led the boys' choir there, sang and was a conductor in the church choir. He graduated from the choral conducting and vocal art studios at the Lviv Conservatory (1931) and the Lviv University (1935). In 1933, he made his debut at the Lviv Opera, where he sang the role of Pedrillo in Mozart's opera "The Abduction from the Seraglio". He sang in the Banduryst and Boyan choirs under the direction of S. Liudkevych, A. Rudnytskyi, and M. Kolessa.
In 1928-35, he was a member of vocal quartets on the radio in Lviv (under the direction of Yevhen Kozak), and later in Warsaw. There he met Mykhailo Teliha and learnt to play the bandura.
In 1940, he became the artistic director of the opera house in Stanislaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk). From 1946, he was the conductor of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandura Choir.
In 1949, he emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Rochester, New York. He worked in a bakery. In November 1949, he moved to Detroit and again took over the leadership of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Bandura Band. In 1951, the first recordings of the chapel under his direction were released. In 1952-1958, the chapel under the direction of V. Bozhyk performed in North America, and in 1958 the chapel toured Europe. After returning to the United States, Bozhyk settled in Rochester again. In 1960, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a church regent and directed the Kobzar Choir at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Los Angeles. The choir performs Ukrainian folk songs, songs by Ukrainian composers and works by the author himself.
He is the author of numerous arrangements for choir and bandura band.
