Volodymyr Andriyovych Komarenko (15 July 1887, Kharkiv - 19 February 1969, Kharkiv) was a Ukrainian conductor, musician, public figure, and teacher. Associate Professor (1935).
Volodymyr Komarenko was born on 15 July 1887 in Kharkiv on Sumska Street in a poor family of a cook and a laundress. A year after Volodymyr's birth, his father died, and his mother raised her son and his older sister Nadiia alone.
His sister later married aviation pioneer Stepan Hryzodubov. He helped him create Hryzodubov's first aeroplane, the G1.
He studied at a parish and then a county school, where he participated in brass and balalaika orchestras and sang in a choir.
In 1905, he entered the Kharkiv Music School, clarinet class of H. Heck. In the same year, he organised and led the Progress balalaika orchestra.
He organised and led the domrovo-balalaika and brass orchestras, classes of domra and balalaika playing at the "Educational Leisure" society (1909-15), organised and led the brass and domrovo-balalaika orchestras of the Helferich-Sade factory, and the balalaika orchestra of the 2nd Higher Primary School (1914-1915);
1917-1919 - worked as a teacher at the 7th City School and conductor of the 3rd Higher Primary School in Kharkiv.
In 1919, he successfully passed the exam to the Kharkiv Music Institute, but in August of that year he was mobilised into the ranks of Denikin's Volunteer Army. From August to December 1919, he served in an engineering company. In December 1919, he joined the Red Army, where he served as a bandmaster and lecturer of musical disciplines in the 6th Cavalry Division of the 1st Cavalry Army. In early 1920, due to typhus, he was evacuated to Kharkiv.
Organiser and leader of the domrovo-balalaika orchestra at the provincial department of public education, which became the first professional orchestra of folk instruments in Ukraine (1920-1952; from 1938 - as part of the Philharmonic).
1922-1924 - teacher at the Professional Music School, Kharkiv.
1924-1941 - director of the 2nd Professional Music School and music courses for adults at this school, Kharkiv.
At the same time, from 1924 he taught at the Conservatory:
1926-1932 - Head of the Department of Folk Instruments,
1932-1934 - Conductor-Kapellmeister of the Department of Folk Instruments,
from 1937 - conductor of the Department of Folk Instruments.
He participated in the organisation and holding of competitions of performers on folk instruments and reviews of amateur performances in Kharkiv (1927-1936).
He was the organiser of the Kharkiv Music and Industrial College, which trained personnel for music factories in Ukraine (1930).
Until 1934, he was a member of the Music Bureau, which coordinated the amateur art movement in Ukraine.
In 1934-1947, he was also the head of the choirmaster's department of the music school.
Organiser and director of the children's orchestra of folk instruments at the P. Postyshev Palace of Pioneers and October-born (1935-1962). In 1943, he initiated the creation of the children's music boarding school at the Conservatory (later a special music boarding school) and directed it until 1948. He taught there until 1969.
In 1945, he graduated from the Kharkiv Conservatory, conducting class.
In 1948 he was dismissed from the conservatoire for political reasons.
At the same time, from 1957 to 1969, he led a brass band.
In 1941-1944, he was the director of the musical complex, which included the conservatory, a music school and a children's music boarding school at the conservatory.
Organiser and director of the Ukrainian folk instruments orchestra in Nataline village (Krasnohrad district, Kharkiv region, 1955-1959).
1957-1965 - organiser and head of the Department of Choral Singing and Music at the Pedagogical Institute.
Publications.
In 1924, Komarenko's first score for domrovo-balalaika orchestra was published in Kharkiv - the Ukrainian folk song "Zakuvala ta sivova zozulia" arranged by P. Nishchynskyi.
He is the author of publications on folk instrumental performance in Ukraine, in particular:
On the organisation of the Great Russian (balalaika) orchestra. Х., 1915;
Work with an amateur orchestra of folk instruments. К., 1955;
Ukrainian orchestra of folk instruments. К., 1960;
Methods of teaching playing the four-stringed domra. К., 1961.
Memory.
On 15 April 2014, in the Zhovtnevyi district of Kharkiv, on the facade of the building of the Tchaikovsky Children's School of Arts No. 2 at 142 Zhovtneva Revolutsii Street (since 2015 - Moskalivska Street), a memorial sign was installed - a memorial plaque to the teacher and musical figure of the XX century Volodymyr Komarenko, who was the director of this school.
