Ukrainian Galician Greek Catholic priest, composer, choral conductor, and virtuoso zitherist.
Biography.
Yevhen Kupchynskyi was born on June 19, 1867, in the village of Oliadiv, now Radekhiv district in Lviv region, to a priest, Ivan Kupchynskyi, and Olena Avdykovska.
While studying at the Lviv Gymnasium, he learned to play the zither and piano. He performed at concerts. In 1891, he graduated from the Lviv Theological Seminary, where he deepened his knowledge of music and mastered the practice of conducting.
Yevhen Kupchynskyi was one of the unsurpassed virtuosos of Galicia of his time. His creative, concert, social, and preaching activities were associated with the Ternopil region. He composed most of his compositions here. Yevhen Kupchynskyi was a priest in Bilkivtsi and Bohdanivka in Zborivshchyna (1893-1899), in Hrymayliv (1900), and in Sorotske in Terebovlia (1905-1938). He was noted as a gifted preacher and clergyman, patriot, and public figure in the Terebovlia region.
Kupchynskyi's great merit is the organization of village choirs in the village of Ripniv in the Lviv region and the village of Sorotske, where he led a mixed church and educational choir for a long time from 1906.
Kupchynsky's creative heritage includes 70 works. Of these, 64 are for the zither. The palette of his work is marked by a richness of genres: musical parts, marches, fantasies, polkas, waltzes, polonaises, romances, dance pieces, songs for mixed choir. Yevhen Kupchynsky's works for the zither include a concerto on themes from Mykola Lysenko's opera Natalka Poltavka, a fantasy on themes from A Christmas Carol, and a fantasy concert No Comfort from Anywhere, marches - "For the Fatherland" and "Green Ruta" (which have a significant influence of Austro-German music with echoes of the old Galician song), works of genre and household music "Life", "Why don't you dance, Halia", a musical picture "In my house", and the suite "Wedding". He published a collection of his works "Three Songs" and ten issues of "Compositions for the Zither".
Works for the zither were often included in the repertoire of many concerts organized by various musical societies and enthusiasts of musical education among the population. An important role in the popularization of the instrument was played by the participation of zither players in the "artistic travels" of the choir of the Academic Brotherhood under the direction of Ostap Nyzhankivskyi, and later the so-called "twelve". The first of these took place in 1889 on the route Stryi - Brody - Zolochiv - Zboriv - Ternopil. Among its participants was, in particular, Yevhen Kupchynskyi, who, having a beautiful voice (low bass), not only sang in the choir but also performed solo performances on the zither. As a zither soloist, he often performed in Lviv, Przemysl, Stryi, Ternopil, and other cities, where concerts in honor of Taras Shevchenko, musical and vocal concerts of the choirs "Academic Brotherhood," "Boyan," and "Banduryst" were organized. In addition to his own compositions, he performed works by Mykola Lysenko, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Schubert, and Robert Schumann, which he arranged for the zither.
Yevhen Kupchynskyi died on August 28, 1938, in the village of Sorotske, where he was buried.
