Tsiurokh (Tjorokh), Illia Ivanovych (30 June 1880, Kolbaevychi, Galicia, Austria-Hungary - 26 March 1942, New York, USA) was a Ukrainian composer, choirmaster and poet.
Biography.
He was born in the village of Kolbaevychi, now Sambir district, Lviv region. He lived most of his life in the United States. He held Muscovite views.
He received his education, including primary music education, at the Stavropegial Bursa in Lviv. At the same time, he graduated from the Lviv Conservatory. After graduation, he directed the choir at the Stavropegial Bursa, where he wrote a number of musical compositions. He collaborated with the Muscovite chauvinist newspaper Prykarpatska Rus.
Before the outbreak of the First World War, he left for Switzerland. His father Ivan Tserokh died in Talerhof at a time when the Austro-Hungarian authorities began repressive measures against Muscovites. In 1915, when the Russian army occupied Galicia, Ilya Tserokh and his wife returned, but in the same year they were forced to flee again, as Galicia once again came under Austro-Hungarian rule. In 1918, Ilya Tserokh and Semen Bendasiuk were sent to the United States as representatives of the Muscovites of Galicia in order to contact the Galician-Russian community there. However, after a long journey (Rostov-on-Don - Vladivostok - San Francisco - New York), they never returned, as Ukraine was seized by the Russian Bolsheviks and Galicia was under Polish rule.
From the early 1920s, Tjeroh lived and worked in New York, USA. In 1929, he visited his homeland, but soon returned.
He worked as a composer and choirmaster. Later, he became a poet, writing the epic poem Svarog (unfinished, published in separate chapters). While living in the United States, he signed his works as Elias I. Tziorogh.
