Oleksandr Zakharovych Minkivskyi (13 (25) December 1900, Snizhne - 12 April 1979, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian choral conductor and teacher. People's Artist of the USSR (1960).
He was born on 13 (25) December 1900 in the village of Snizhna, Skvyra district, Kyiv province (now Pohrebyshche district, Vinnytsia region) in the family of a village teacher and a sexton. From the age of six, he studied at a parochial school, where he participated in the choir and mastered the violin. From the age of ten, he studied at the Kyiv Theological School. In a short time, he became a member of a large children's symphony orchestra. After a year of study, he was given his first solo in a concert of works by D. Bortnyansky. Then his parents sent him to a two-class teacher's school, where, on his initiative, the students formed an instrumental ensemble. Oleksandr mastered conducting, and when the singing teacher was mobilised to the front in 1916, he led the school choir. He himself gradually learned to harmonise revolutionary songs to meet the needs of the day, and on 1 May 1917, the choir, directed by O. Minkivskyi, successfully performed at a demonstration, performing "Marseillaise", "Warsaw Girl" and "Let's march in step" harmonised by Oleksandr.
He completed his secondary education at the Kyiv Pedagogical School in 1921. At the teacher's seminary, he studied singing and music notation with Kyrylo Stetsenko, who taught him a lot as a practitioner and methodologist, and O. Minkivskyi helped him a lot in leading the seminary choir. Later, the choir was directed by another famous composer, Mykola Leontovych. Under him, O. Minkivskyi was the head of the choir, and learned to harmonise and arrange folk songs.
After graduating from the conducting faculty of the Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Music and Drama Institute in 1930 (a student of S. Telezhynskyi), he taught at music and pedagogical institutions in Kyiv. In 1934-1941, he was an artistic director and conductor of the Ukrainian Radio Committee Choir. He was the deputy conductor of the Ukrainian Folk Choir. In 1942-1944, he was a researcher at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, in 1946-1974 - artistic director and chief conductor of the Bandura Choir of the Ukrainian SSR. Since 1951, he has been a lecturer at the Kyiv Conservatory (since 1960 - Head of the Conducting Department, since 1965 - Professor).
Author of musicological articles and arrangements of folk songs. Compiler of the collection "Ukrainian Classical Choirs" (1955).
He died on 12 April 1979. He was buried in Kyiv at the Baikove Cemetery.
Awards and honours
He was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, and medals.
Laureate of the Taras Shevchenko State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR (1969).
Memorial.
On 17 March 1981, the memorial plaque was established in Kyiv, at 26 Shota Rustaveli Street, where Oleksandr Minkivskyi lived from 1959 to 1979 (bronze; bas-relief, sculptor I. Makohon, architect I. Zhylkin).
