Ukrainian composer, conductor, chess player. Brother of Iryna Turkevych-Martynets and Stefania Turkevych-Lukianovych.
Biography.
Lev Turkevych was born into a priestly family: his father, Fr. Ivan Emanuel Turkevych (1872-1936), and his grandfather, Fr. Lev Turkevych, were Greek Catholic priests. His mother was Sofia Kormosh. The family has long been proud of their high education and musicality. The boy was actively engaged in music from an early age: at the age of seven he performed as a soloist on the Lviv stage and played the piano compositions of Chopin, Beethoven, and Mozart.
Since 1911, the family has lived at St. George's Cathedral with his grandfather, and his father became a catechist at the Second Ukrainian Gymnasium, also known as the "branch": his son went to study there.
At the gymnasium, Lev Turkevych also demonstrated mathematical abilities and became an honors mathematician. After graduating with honors from the matura in 1919, he began studying at the underground Ukrainian University: he taught in churches, private homes, and Ukrainian institutions. In 1922, the young man was enrolled as a student at the University of Vienna: the Faculty of Philosophy, majoring in musicology. He also studied at the Mykola Lysenko Higher Music Institute, the Lviv Conservatory, and the Music Academy in Vienna (he studied piano with Professor Würer and composition with Professor Marx).
Not forgetting about his passion for mathematics, Lev Turkevych attended lectures at the mathematics department in Vienna, and upon returning to Lviv, he enrolled in the mathematics department of Lviv University for further studies. The student's mathematical talent helped him in music and in chess tournaments, in which he won more and more often. He also found time for entertainment: billiards, tennis, and chess.
Musical work
He began his musical career as a choir instructor: from 1927 he conducted the Boyan and Banduryst choirs in Lviv, and operas in Lviv (now the Solomiya Krushelnytska Lviv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater), Bydgoszcz, Warsaw, and Poznan.
1941-1944 - conductor of symphony concerts in Lviv and musical director of the Lviv Opera, where he participated in the production of ballets Don Quixote, Per Gynt, Coppelia (1942), Pierretta's Haze (musical composition, 1943).
Since 1944, he has been in exile. In 1945, he organized the Vatra Choir, which toured Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Since 1948, he lived in a small town in Canada. He directed choirs and symphony orchestras.
Since 1950, he has lived in Edmonton and Toronto; he conducted choirs, symphony concerts, operas, harmonized and arranged numerous folk songs and other works.
