Zynoviy Lysko (November 11, 1895, Rakobovty - June 3, 1969, New York, USA) was a Ukrainian composer, musicologist, and folklorist.
He was born in the Lviv region. He completed his general education at the Lviv Academic Gymnasium (class of 1913) and took a course in Ukrainian studies at Lviv University in 1913-1914. In 1922 he graduated from the Secret Ukrainian University.
He received his musical education at the Lysenko Higher Music Institute in the piano class of M. Krynytska, and mastered music theory under the guidance of Stanislav Liudkevych. In 1922, while living in Lviv, he took private lessons in harmony from Vasyl Barvinsky.
In 1924, he moved to Prague, where he studied composition with Fedir Yakymenko. In 1926, he graduated from the Music Department of Charles University, class of Zdenek Niedli. Two years later, he received the title of Doctor of Philosophy at the Ukrainian Free University. At the same time, in 1927, he took a composition course by K. B. Jirak and in 1929 graduated from the Higher School of Masters of the Prague Conservatory (composition class of J. Suk).
He was engaged in teaching for many years. From 1925 to 1929, he lectured on composition and taught piano at the Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute in Prague. After returning to his homeland, in 1930-1931, he worked as a teacher of theoretical disciplines at the Kharkiv Conservatory. He taught piano and theoretical subjects at the Lysenko Music Institute in Lviv and headed its branch in Stryi (1930-1939). In 1931-44, he was a professor of composition at the Lviv Conservatory (during the German occupation - the Higher Music Institute in Lviv). He was the editor of the Ukrainian Music magazine (1937-1939) and the collection The Chervona Kalyna Singer (1937), and co-author of the Conductor's Guide (1938). He served as deputy chairman of the Musicology Commission of the Taras Shevchenko Scientific Society.
With the return of the Soviet occupiers to Western Ukraine in 1944, he found himself in West Germany, in the Mittenwald displaced persons camp, where he headed a music school. In addition, he served as an inspector of music education at the SPUEN (the educational association of Ukrainians in Western Europe).
In 1960, he emigrated to the United States, where in 1962 he became the head of the Ukrainian Music Institute (New York, 1961-1969). He died in New York. He was the chairman of the Musicology Commission of the Ukrainian Free University. He retained his membership in the Taras Shevchenko National Academy of Sciences.
Major works
Zynoviy Lysko is a representative of the modern trend in Ukrainian music. The artist's creative heritage is diverse and includes a large number of opuses. The composer compiled a catalog of his own works, which includes 326 opuses. It is worth noting that the musician was very demanding of himself, so he did not include his early works in the list (except for those that he later edited). The catalog of works covers the mature (since 1927) and late periods of his career.
Opera - "The Golden Wedding"
Cantatas - "The Song of the Fighters", "Ode to a Song", "The Harsh Wind"
Symphonic poems - "Trizna", "Boys' Suite"
Chamber works - string quartet, piano trio, sonata and suite,
Vocal and choral works - vocal trio "Kateryna" with piano, cantatas for choir, solo songs, numerous arrangements of folk and shooting songs.
Church music
Musicological research
"Conductor's Guide" (co-authored),
"Musical Dictionary" (Stryi, 1933),
monographic works on I. Lavrivskyi, O. Koshytsia, V. Barvinskyi, and others.
A series of collections "Ukrainian Folk Melodies", which collected and systematized about 12 thousand Ukrainian folk songs.
