Borys Lyatoshynsky 

Borys Lyatoshynsky was born in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. In 1913 he became a member of the law faculty at Kyiv University and began taking composition classes with Reinhold Glière, with whom he later continued at the newly opened Kyiv Conservatory (now the National Music Academy of Ukraine). From 1919 until his death, Lyatoshynsky taught at the Kyiv Conservatory for the rest of his life. From 1922 to 1925, he headed the Ukrainian Association of Contemporary Music. From 1935 to 1937 and from 1943 to 1944, Lyatoshynsky taught orchestration at the Moscow Conservatory. He was president and later a board member of the Ukrainian Composers’ Union (1939-1941). After World War II, his career achieved international recognition. Lyatoshynsky was a member of international competitions juries, such as the Belgian Quartet Competition in Liege (1956, 1959, 1962), the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1958, 1962), and the Lysenko Competition in Kyiv. Borys Lyatoshynsky wrote in many musical genres and elevated Ukrainian symphonic music to a world-class level. However, he was heavily criticized by the Soviets and accused of ‘formalism.’