Ukrainian musician, composer, choral conductor, founder of the Burlaka Choir, sergeant major of the Galicia Division and the First Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army.
Biography.
His father was a school administrator, his mother, Angelina Yuzofivna, and cousin Lesia Martovych were teachers.
In 1921, his mother died, and his sisters Roma and Mariia took over his upbringing. In the 1930s, the Huminilovych family moved to Kolomyia, where his father got a job, and the children had the opportunity to study at a Ukrainian gymnasium. While studying in Kolomyia, he was the goalkeeper of the Sokil team, and later of Dovbush.
The Yabtsia Jazz Chapel. From left to right: Stepan Humynilovych, Anatolii Kos, Leonid Yablonskyi, Bohdan Vesolovskyi.
After graduating from high school, he worked as a teacher in Balyntsi. Later he entered the Lysenko Higher Music Institute in Lviv, graduating in 1939 with a degree in violin performance; while studying, he directed the Prosvita Choir in Toporivtsi. Since that year, in Kolomyia, he has been leading several choirs that he organized in nearby villages, and has also become one of the best football goalkeepers in the region.
The first songs he wrote appeared during his studies in Lviv and competed with the works of Henrik Vars. He was a member of Leonid Yablonsky's jazz band "Yabtsia", in addition to the founder Leonid Yablonsky, the band also included Bohdan Vesolovsky and Anatoliy Kos (Kos-Anatolsky), students of the Lysenko Higher Music Institute. One of the group's achievements was the revue In the Rhythm of Melodies.
Back in the days of the Polish government, he joined the OUN, and when the first Soviets came to power, he found himself in Berlin, working at the Schwarzkopf factory.
At the outbreak of the Nazi-Soviet war, he returned to Kolomyia and was arrested for underground activities. After his release from prison in 1943, he volunteered for the Galicia Division, completed the petty officer's training, and participated in the Battle of Brody; he was with the division in Slovakia, Austria, and Yugoslavia.
In exile
In mid-October 1945, 9,500 divisional soldiers who were in British captivity were transported from Bialaria to the territory of former Italian air bases near the village of Miramare near Rimini. Here, Horunzhiy Humilinovych organized the Burlaka Choir.
He led the choir until 1947, when, with the help of Bishop Buchko, he moved to Austria, where he began working at the Salzburg Real Gymnasium. There he got a job as a physical education teacher, after work he conducted the Trembita choir, played football for the Ukraine club; at this time he began to compose light music again. In 1948, he married Lidia, and in the same year he and his wife moved overseas, and the family settled in Chile. His sons Andrii and Yurii were born there.
Later, the family moved to Buenos Aires, where he directed the Trembita Choir at the Prosvita Society.
As a composer, he combined Ukrainian melodies with Latin American rhythms: the foxtrot "Spring," the tango "Dream," and "I'm Flying to You."
His son Marko was born in Argentina; in 1957, at the urging of the army, the Humynilovych family moved to Canada and settled in Oshawa.
Until 1961, he was the conductor of the choir of St. George's Church in Oshawa, directed the Boyan Choir in Toronto, and in 1976 he resumed the work of the Burlaka Choir, whose first performance took place in the Ryerson Hall on the occasion of Ivan Franko's anniversary, with the song "Division, Gay, Native Mother" by I. Muzychka to lyrics by M. Uhryn-Bezgryshny.
In 1979, due to illness and deteriorating health, he resigned from the choir, but continued to compose music. In total, he created about 400 compositions.
He died and was buried in Toronto at Prospect Cemetery.
His creative works include
choral works "Bells", "Don Cossack", "Caucasus", "Kuperen", "Pochayivska", "Bird Choir", "The Last Judgment",
arrangements of folk songs "And the grove laughs again", "There on the mountain, on the top", "There, under the forest",
foxtrot "I want to come to you again",
tango "Lilac", "Farewell", "Mom..."
waltzes "I am here, you are there", "Sunday in Ukraine",
music for the play "The Best Guys in the Division" by Zinoviy Lysko. "The Friday Night Theater from New York City staged this play 14 times in different cities of the United States and Canada in 1968 alone, with actors Yulia and Volodymyr Shasharovsky, Bohdan Pazdriy, singers Maria Lysiak and Ivan Samokish, and piano accompaniment by Zoia Markovych.
The Lviv Museum of the Ukrainian National University exhibits a collection of Huminilovych's songs My Old Songs, published in 1983 in Toronto by his son Mark; 24 songs with lyrics by poets Borys Bohor, Yuriy Foris, A. Kurdydydyk, and L. Yablonsky.
