Orest Kurash (10 October 1935, Orikhivtsi village near Przemyśl, Poland - 5 November 2006, Lviv, Ukraine) was a Ukrainian choirmaster, public figure, Honoured Artist of Ukraine (since 1989).
In 1945, together with his parents and family, he was forced to leave his native land, which after the Second World War was annexed by Poland.
He studied at the secondary school of Sokilnyky village (now - Pustomyty district, Lviv region), Lviv Music and Pedagogical College (class of Honoured Artist of Ukraine Yevhen Vakhniak) and in 1953-1958 at the Lviv Conservatory (speciality "conducting"; class of Professor, People's Artist of Ukraine Mykola Kolessa and Associate Professor, Honoured Artist of Ukraine Volodymyr Vasylevych).
1958-1965 and 1980-1986 - chief choirmaster, 1986-2006 - choirmaster of the Ivan Franko Lviv Opera and Ballet Theatre (now the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre).
1959-1975 - director of the choir of boarding school No. 9 in Lviv. Lviv.
1963-1967 - director of the choir of the boarding school № 2 in Lviv. Lviv.
1967-1970 - lecturer in conducting and choral disciplines at the Lviv Music and Pedagogical College.
Organiser and director of the Choir of Creative Youth (1960) and the Choir of Teachers and Rural Intellectuals (1970) in Sokilnyky village.
1971 - artistic director of the folk song and dance ensemble "Veselka" of the House of Culture in Zhovtnevyi village, Zaliznychnyi district of Lviv.
1971-1978 - director of the song and dance ensemble "Verkhovyna" in Lviv. Lviv.
1998-2006 - head of the Halych city branch of the All-Ukrainian Association of Veterans.
He died in Lviv. He was buried in Sokilnyky.
Member of the Union of Theatre Workers of Ukraine (since 1990).
Member of the People's Movement of Ukraine (since 1995).
Veteran of Labour (1998).
First readings of performances
As a choirmaster, he performed the first readings of plays:
"Forest Song" (1958) and "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (1960) by V. Kireiko
"Stolen Happiness" by Yuri Maitus (1960)
"Oleska Ballad" by B. Yanivsky (1986)
Performances
Orest Kurash (right) and Mykola Kolesa. Lviv, 16 November 1995
"Cossack beyond the Danube" by S. Hulak-Artemovsky
"Natalka Poltavka, Taras Bulba by M. Lysenko
"Aida", "Masquerade Ball", "Otello", "Rigoletto", "La Traviata", "La Trovatore" by G. Verdi
"Faust by Ch. Gounod
"Ivan Susanin" by M. Glinka
"Boris Godunov", "Khovanshchina" by M. Mussorgsky
"Prince Igor" by A. Borodin
"Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades by P. Tchaikovsky
"Pebbles" by S. Moniuszko
"Carmen", "The Pearl Seekers" by G. Bizet
"Rural honour" by P. Mascagni
"Payas" by R. Leoncavallo
"La bohème, Tosca by G. Puccini
"War and Peace" by S. Prokofiev
"Days of the Revolution" by M. Karminsky
"The Golden Hoop by B. Lyatoshynsky
"Nazar Stodolya by K. Dankevych
"The Creation of the World" A. Petrov
and others.
