Osyp (Yosyp) Sylvesterovych Vitoshynskyi was a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest, conductor, and public and educational figure.
He was born on 15 June 1838 in Kosiv, now Ivano-Frankivsk region, into a large intelligent family. J. Vitoshynskyi spent his childhood and youth in the village of Krasnoillia, where his parents moved to live permanently. He graduated from the Przemyśl Gymnasium and the Lviv Seminary (1864). He was one of the first organisers of peasant choirs in Galicia. In 1864-1867, the artist founded a peasant choir that sang 5 notes in the village of Zarvanytsia, and then in the village of Denysiv.
The Denysiv choir was a great success. At a concert in Lviv, even music connoisseurs thought that opera artists dressed in peasant clothes were singing on the stage, not farmers. The activities of the ensemble were widely covered by the Lviv press, which noted its high performance skills and influence on the development of musical art in the villages of Galicia.
J. Vitoshynskyi was an organiser of a peasant brass band and a gifted teacher. He gave deep practical knowledge to conductors of folk choirs. He was tireless in public life. Together with his teacher O. Borodiyevych, he founded a reading room with a library in the village of Denysiv, taught villagers gardening and beekeeping. At his own expense, he bought instruments for the brass band in Prague, and thanks to his efforts, the People's House was built in the village.
He died on 24 January 1901 in the village of Denysove.
