Oleksandr Ivanovych Shapoval was a Ukrainian tenor and soprano saxophonist, flutist, conductor, Honoured Artist of Ukraine, director of an ensemble and orchestra, one of the leading musicians of Dnipro in the 60s and 70s.
Biography
He was born on 11 June 1945 in Kislovodsk, Dnipro region. As a child, he played the cello, and mastered the saxophone on his own.
In 1967, he graduated from the National Mining University of Ukraine and worked as an engineer at the Polyakov Institute of Geotechnical Mechanics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for six years.
He started playing jazz in a student orchestra and in 1968 formed his own band. In 1968-1971 and 1973, he performed at Dnipro festivals with his own band and the big band of Vladimir Markhovskyi.
In 1977, he graduated from the Dnipro Music College with a degree in choral conducting, and in 1973-1977 he led the vocal and instrumental ensemble Vodohrai and a jazz sextet. His most successful composition is "Kobzar's Duma" (performed at many festivals and concerts), which became one of the examples of the successful use of Ukrainian folklore in jazz. Since 1979, he has been the chief conductor of the Kyiv Variety Theatre, and in 1980 he prepared the Musical Globe programme with an ensemble of soloists.
Since 1981, he has been teaching at the Reinhold Glier Kyiv State Higher Music School.
