Ukrainian ethnographer, composer, music critic, and teacher.
Biography.
In 1895 he graduated from the Music Institute in Warsaw. He organized a choir in Lubny, held concerts, participated in amateur performances; he invited the writer Liubov Yanovska to organize a performance for the benefit of the Society for Assistance to Rural Teachers. He had good relations with the ethnographers K. Bochkariov and Vasyl P. Miloradovych, who lived in Lubny at the time.
In Moscow, he studied composition with Oleksandr Ilyinsky.
Every winter he lived in Moscow, where, while teaching choral conducting at the People's Conservatory, he was a regular music critic for the Voice of Moscow newspaper; at the beginning of summer he came to Lubny.
In September 1902, he began working as a teacher at the Moscow Primary Male City School, and from 1904 he taught singing at the Moscow Women's Gymnasium.
He made efforts to organize free lectures and concerts, which were mostly held in People's Houses for workers and artisans, and in rural areas for peasants.
In 1903 and 1912, he participated in the expeditions of the Musical and Ethnographic Commission, together with E. E. Lyniova, Oleksandr Maslov, and Mykola Yanchuk.
In 1910, the musical and dramatic circle "Kobzar" was founded in Moscow. Pidhoretsky's work in it was to promote Ukrainian folk songs among students.
As an ethnographer, Pidhoretsky defended a scientific approach to the study of folklore, insisting on the accuracy of recording.
On behalf of the Musical and Ethnographic Commission, he recorded about 120 choral songs from Ukrainian peasants, including a cycle of ritualistic majestic songs.
Together with O. Maslov, he prepared for publication a collection of folk songs "Golden Ears of Spikelets" for primary and secondary school children in 1913.
From 1915 he taught choral singing at the Moscow Folk Conservatory.
In 1918-1919, he worked as a music critic for the newspaper Izvestia Vtsik; he studied the works of Pavlo Senytsia.
Works.
He wrote two operas - "The Bathing Spark", staged in 1901 in Kyiv, "Poor Lisa" - in 1916, more than 100 romances - to the words of J. Byron, H. Heine, N. Nekrasov, A. Pushkin, I. Franko, T. Shevchenko, piano pieces, choirs.
Family.
His great-great-grandson Volodymyr Pidhoretskyi (Sokolov) lives and works in Los Angeles, and his music is also featured in Hollywood films.
