Ukrainian choral conductor, composer, ethnographer and memoirist.
Biography
Origin
Belonged to an old priestly family: father Antin Hnatovych Koshyts of Porai coat of arms was a priest, mother Yevdokia Mykhailivna, from the Mayakovsky family. Oleksandr had 8 brothers and sisters. His brother Fedir Antonovych Koshyts was born on September 4, baptized on September 10, 1872 (according to the old style) in the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the village of Chamomile of Traktomyriv Volost, Kaniv District. Kyiv province. Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Kyiv. F.127, op. 1078, issue 1463, sheet 13zv-14 (Metric book about the birth of the Church of the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Romashki, Traktomirivska parish, Kanivsky district, Kyiv province) Oleksandr Antonovych Koshyts was born on August 30, baptized on October 1, 1875 (according to the old style ) in the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin in the village of Chamomile of Traktomyriv Volost, Kaniv District. Kyiv province. Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Kyiv. F. 127, op. 1078, reference 1463, sheet 65zv-66 (Metric book about the birth of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in the village of Romashki, Traktomyriv parish, Kaniv district, Kyiv province)
From 1861 to 1877, his father was a priest of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Mother of God in the village of Chamomile of Traktomyriv Volost, Kaniv District. Kyiv province. In 1877, my father moved to a new parish next to Shevchenko Kyrylivka — to the village of Tarasivka, Zvenygorod district. At one time, Taras Shevchenko was employed by his distant relative, the priest Hryhoriy Koshyts, and later, when he was already a freelance artist (1845), unsuccessfully wooed his daughter Feodosia (Todosi). Oleksandr himself knew Taras' nephew Peter Shevchenko well, and was friends with his son Grigory. In his "Memoirs", which were published in Canada and nowadays in Ukraine, Oleksandr Antonovych wrote that
"Shevchenko was known and thought of in their village as something unique, recent, almost modern."
Learning and teaching
A mixed choir of Kyiv University students and students of higher women's courses under the direction of Oleksandr Koshyts (in the center). Kyiv, 1914
In 1884, he entered the diocesan bursa in Bohuslav, in 1890 he transferred to the Kyiv Theological Academy, where he received a diploma of the academy and an academic degree of candidate of theology in 1901. He worked as a teacher in 1902 in the Caucasus at the Theological Women's Gymnasium in Stavropol, and then as a history teacher at the Teachers' Institute.
In 1903–1905, he collected and recorded Cossack songs in the Kuban, which he later published in the collection "500 Kuban folk songs".
Conducting
Oleksandr Koshyts — conductor of the Kyiv Opera (far left), Tetiana Georgievska (center), 1916
After returning to Kyiv in 1904, he taught in various gymnasiums, led the choirs of the Theological School, the School for the Blind, the Commercial School, and the student choir of St. Volodymyr's University. Later, he went to work at Mykola Lysenko's Music and Drama School, led a choral singing class, and at the same time studied composition with Professor Hryhoriy Lyubomyrskyi.
Since 1911, the directorate of the Imperial Music School offered him to lead a choral singing class at the school, and later at the conservatory. In 1912, Mykola Sadovsky invited Oleksandr Koshyts to the position of conductor of his theater, where he staged operas by Mykola Lysenko, Denys Sichynskyi, Pietro Mascagna, etc., wrote music for the plays "Give your heart freedom, lead into captivity" by Mark Kropyvnytskyi, "The Tale of the Old Mill" by Spyridon Cherkasenko and others.
In 1916–1917, he was the choirmaster and conductor of the Kyiv Opera.
In 1917, the Ukrainian Central Council called him to the Music Theater Commission, which was the embryo of the later Ministry of Arts of Ukraine. During the time of the UNR Directory, together with Kyryll Stetsenko, he became a co-organizer of the Ukrainian Republican Chapel, with which, on behalf of Simon Petlyura, he toured Western Europe and America. This group, at that time the best in Ukraine, used art to inform the world about the struggle of the Ukrainian people for independence. After the fall of the UNR, Košice was no longer able to return to Ukraine with the choir.
World tours
During the performances of the Republican Chapel in Prague, 1919
The Ukrainian Republican Chapel of Oleksandr Koshyts successfully toured European capitals: since 1919, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, and Spain applauded it.
In 1922, he went on tour with his choir to America, where he enjoyed even greater success than in Europe. The choir has won great fame in the USA, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil; a notable event was the performance of the Košice choir in New York in 1922, where M. Leontovych's Shchedryk, which became popular all over the world, was performed for the first time; between 1923 and 1924, he gave concerts with great success in Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Florida, and California. There is an assumption that in 1929, George Gershwin heard the lullaby "Oi hody son kolo vikon..." performed by the Koshyts choir (Koshyts made a choral arrangement of Vasyl Barvinsky's piano miniature), and the melody of this song became the basisSummertime arias from the opera "Porgy and Bess"; this aria later became one of the most popular jazz standards.
"There is no one else in the world who, to such a high degree of mastery, as Košice, has mastered the art of interpreting the choir as a musical instrument or an orchestra, from which he knows how to extract all sound rays with boundless artistry."
- wrote the Swiss newspaper "Basler Anzeiger" on October 14, 1919.
Success and life abroad
Oleksandr Koshyts
In 1926, he settled in New York, worked in the USA and Canada to educate new conductors: conducted music courses for conductors, etc. Wrote church works (5 liturgies, separate chants), reworked folk songs. In New York, he continued to popularize Ukrainian music with his compositions, arrangements, and gramophone records — and the music publishing house "Witmark and Son" published a mass edition of translations into English of forty-two Ukrainian folk songs arranged by Oleksandr Koshyts.
Despite the triumphs in Europe, the USA, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Canada, Košice was increasingly tormented by unbearable nostalgia, alarmed by news from the homeland. Benevsky wrote to his friends:
"My only hope, which keeps me on the ground and gives me the strength to live, is to be at home before I die, to see my dear friends, my dear Kyiv, my Ukraine."
Unfortunately or fortunately, the bureaucratic system of approvals dragged out such procedures for years. The last time in 1928 was a message that his candidacy to return to Ukraine was not approved. Košice took this blow very painfully. Later, in Winnipeg, he organized the diary entries "With a song through the world" (printed posthumously) and wrote "Memories", worked intensively on the repertoire of verse sound recordings.
Mausoleum slab of Oleksandr Koshyts
Death
He died on September 21, 1944 in the city of Winnipeg. About 5 thousand Ukrainians came to say goodbye to the great Maestro. The funeral was similar to a national mourning demonstration, and the body (as well as, later, that of his wife Tetiana Koshyts-Georgievska, 1892–1966) was laid to rest in the mausoleum of the Glen Eden cemetery in Winnipeg, where prominent Orthodox Canadians are usually buried of Ukrainian origin.
Musical heritage
Posthumously, he left a double musical legacy. His personal and musical archive is deposited in the Center of Ukrainian Culture and Education, where his wife, a singing teacher by profession and folklorist by personal interest, was the curator.
He made such an impression on the minds of some of his chorister students that they took over and continued his choral-musical mission, becoming conductors of the O. Koshyts Choir and promoters of Ukrainian choral art. The creative activity of O. Koshyts and the Choir named after him raised the image of Ukrainian culture in Canada.
The wife of Oleksandr Koshytsia Tetyana Omelyanivna Georgievska (1892-1966), also a native of Ukraine, from Vinnytsia, a former chorister of Koshytsia during the Kyiv years, a constant member of all the Ukrainian choirs during the world tours. After the death of Oleksandr Koshyts, Tetyana Omelyanivna transferred his archive to the Center of Ukrainian Culture and Education in Winnipeg, and from 1948 until her last days was its director, as well as a member of the editorial team of the editions of "Spogady" and "Schodenniki", a guardian of the choir named after Koshyts.
Memory in the Motherland
In Ukraine, Košice is honored for its contribution to the development of national culture and its spread abroad. Fans of creativity considered him a genius both during his lifetime and now: sometimes historians and art critics of Cherkasy region believe that their land gave the world two unique personalities - Shevchenko and Koshyts. Everyone knows the first; the second - mainly abroad.
A memorial stele was opened in Tarasivka (Cherka region) to perpetuate the memory of Oleksandr Koshyts.
In Ukraine, the works of the conductor were republished: "Memories" and "With a song through the world". In 2007, the publishing house "Muzychna Ukraina" published Mykhailo Golovashchenko's book "The Phenomenon of Oleksandr Koshyts".
The memory of Oleksandr Koshyts is deeply revered in Boguslav, where Kosyts studied: there is a street named after him (as well as in Kyiv, Lviv and Kanev). In Kyiv, there is a museum of Oleksandr Koshyts - in the premises of Secondary School No. 296, located on the street named after the conductor. The Choir Chapel of the Bohuslav Pedagogical School under the leadership of Honored Art Worker of Ukraine Oleksiy Yuzefovych is named after Oleksandr Koshyts. The chapel, which widely popularizes his works, is a laureate of two All-Ukrainian competitions of choral art named after Leontovych, international festivals of Ukrainian wind music.
One of the showcases of the One Street Museum is dedicated to the famous composer. He changed several addresses on Andriivsky Uzvoz (No. 8 in 1893–1894, then No. 20, No. 32 and No. 22, where in 1905–1907 he lived with Ivan Yosypovich Shatrov). Some of the most valuable exhibits of this showcase are the personal autographs and sheet music of the artist, portraits of luminaries of the Ukrainian theater with whom the composer worked, in particular Panas Saksagansky in the role of Holokhwastov, as well as photographs of Oleksandr Koshyts's chapel during the period of foreign tours. A story about an outstanding musician as a representative of the Ukrainian diasporais in the exposition of the Museum of Cultural Heritage in Kyiv.
By Resolution No. 184-VIII of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine dated February 11, 2015, the 140th anniversary of the birth of Oleksandr Koshyts was celebrated at the state level.
Košice Museum
On September 12, 2000, to the 125th anniversary of the birth of O. Koshyts, the only museum of Oleksandr Kosyts in Ukraine was opened in Kyiv - in the premises of Secondary School No. 296, on the street named after the conductor. The initiator of the creation and the first director of the museum was the educator Svitlana Litvinova, later she became an honorary citizen of Kyiv. "The opening of the school museum is an event of national importance," said the head of the Darnytsk District State Administration, Mykola Kyrylyuk. — And we are doubly pleased that this is the first museum, our first swallow in Ukraine. Now everyone who is interested in the history of Ukraine and its capital will be able to find out which great Ukrainian is named after one of the streets of our district!"
The school has a group of young local historians under the leadership of an experienced history teacher G. F. Zorivchak, connections have been established with the state museums of Kyiv, Kanev, Bohuslav, Berezhany, Ternopil region, students of secondary school No. 124 in Moscow, and school local historians from the village of Tarasivka, Cherkasy region.
The materials for the exhibition came from the descendants of the Koshy family living in Kyiv, Boyarka, from well-known art critics in Ukraine — M. Holovashchenko and L. Parkhomenko, from the choir named after O. Koshytsia of Boguslav College, from the choir named after O. Koshytsia from the city of Winnipeg (Canada), from the village of Tarasivka, where the Koshytsy family lived, from the museum of Bohdan Lepky in Berezhany, Ternopil region, etc.
Other commemorative events
As part of the Government program of the Year of Ukraine in the Russian Federation, a delegation from the museum visited the III All-Ukrainian festival-competition of Ukrainian choral groups named after Košice, which was held in Moscow. The delegation brought many unique materials to replenish the museum.
On the occasion of celebrating this important date, a festival-competition of Ukrainian choral groups named after Koshytsia with the support of the Minister of Culture of Ukraine and on the initiative of the head of the department of choral conducting of the State Music Academy P. Laschenko.
On Koshytsia Street in Kyiv, with the assistance of the Darnytsia State Administration, they are planning to open the bust of the composer.
