Ukrainian conductor. Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1967).
Biography.
Oleksandr Presych was born on August 27 (September 9, new style), 1909, at Pohranichna station, now China. In 1934 he graduated from the Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Music and Drama Institute.
He headed symphony orchestras: in 1934-1935 - in Kamianets-Podilskyi, in 1935-1940 - in Zaporizhzhia. In 1934, he began his teaching career in Kamianets-Podilskyi, working as a teacher of wind instruments at the Mykola Lysenko Music College.
Before the war, Oleksandr Silovych worked in the orchestra of the Kyiv Opera House. When the Germans were advancing, Presych, as a young conductor, was left in Kyiv to evacuate the theater's property. However, the Presych family did not have time to leave the capital. Daughter Marharyta recalled this period as follows: "I remember many terrible pictures and episodes of the war. My mother's cry when my father, who had been declared dead shortly before, returned."
In 1946-1947, Presych worked as a conductor at the Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1947-1964, he headed the Odesa Symphony Orchestra.
In 1964-1971, Presych was the chief conductor of the Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater. In 1967, he was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR.
In 1971, he returned to Odesa and for the last ten years of his life, from 1971 to 1981, he was the chief conductor of the opera studio of the Odesa Conservatory.
Oleksandr Presych was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and medals.
His wife, Hanna Presych, was a soloist vocalist of the Odesa Philharmonic. Their daughter Marharyta Presych is an actress at the Vasyl Vasylko Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater in Odesa.
In an interview, Marharyta Presych said:
"In my bookcase, there is a photo of my father, and next to it is a small book called On the Art of Living with Dignity. These words, one might say, are an epigraph to my father's life. He was a very talented musician, but he was too modest and a workaholic, honest and uncompromising. He never sought fame. I am happy to have grown up in this family. Music was the queen in our home, and there was an atmosphere of devotion to art."
The Israeli musician Levi Shaar, who studied at the Odesa Conservatory, described the conductor in the following way:
"Presych is a kind, courageous, and patient person. His main quality is his ability to work. It was this quality that he unobtrusively developed in his students. He would write down all the parts of the orchestra and the strokes of the string players himself, so that he would know the "little things" without which there could be no normal rehearsal work. He knew all the professional subtleties of the instruments in all groups by heart and could talk about them for hours. He loved to invite his students to his house and listen to music with them, discussing style, performance, and interpretation.
Oleksandr Presych died on 20 April 1981 in Odesa at the age of 72.
Creative work
Among the performances with Presych's participation are operas:
"Don Carlos", "Rigoletto", "Aida" by Giuseppe Verdi,
"Faust" by Charles Gounod,
"Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin,
"Mazepa, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky,
"Semyon Kotko by Sergei Prokofiev,
"The Quiet Don" by Ivan Dzerzhinsky.
In the 1942/43 season in Kyiv, he conducted a production of Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata.
Presych also conducted concerts. In particular, he conducted performances of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Dumka Choir and Verdi's Requiem with the Trembita Choir.
