BORYS LIATOSHYNSKY (1895-1968) is considered the father of Ukrainian contemporary music.

Born and raised in Zhytomyr, Liatoshynsky enrolled as a student in the law faculty at Kyiv University (today, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) at the age of 18 while also studying composition with the famed pedagogue and future head of the Kyiv Conservatory, Reinhold Gliere. Liatoshynsky followed Gliere to the newly opened Kyiv Conservatory (today, the National Music Academy of Ukraine) in 1914.

Symbolic of a new era of Ukrainian composers who largely stayed in Ukraine, Liatoshynsky only taught outside the country for a couple of short periods, including when he was a professor of orchestration at the Moscow Conservatory from 1935 to 1944. Due to the threat of the German army, in 1941, Liatoshynsky was evacuated to the Saratov Conservatory with other members of the Moscow Conservatory.

The variety of Liatoshynsky’s musical style reflects the turbulence of the first half of the 20th century in which he lived and worked. His earliest works reflect the influence of symbolism, impressionism, and particularly the music of Alexander Scriabin. In the 1920s, he entered his most free and distinctive creative period in which he experimented with rejections of tonal harmony that characterized the works of figures like Alban Berg, who Liatoshnysky championed in Kyiv. Compositions from this time include his Overture on Four Ukrainian Themes (1927). Repressive policies under Stalin in the 1930s caused the composer to greatly simplify his style, returning to classical musical models and turning to texts by Russian cultural figures like Alexander Pushkin. It was also during this period that Liatoshynsky set Ukrainian poetry, including by Ivan Franko, Taras Shevchenko, Maksym Rylsky, and Volodymyr Sosiura. Liatoshynsky also further incorporated elements of Ukrainian folk music into his compositions, including the Ukrainian Quintet (1941), his Suite on Ukrainian Folk Themes (1944), several vocal arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs, and the Third Symphony, whose thematic make-up is deeply rooted in folk music.

The composer wrote in nearly every genre, including chamber music, opera, lieder, film music, and perhaps most importantly, the completion of five symphonies.

During his tenure in at the conversatory, Liatoshynsky taught a large portion of the country’s most important composers, especially members of the so-called Kyiv Avant-Garde or the Sixtiers [Shistdesyatnyky], a generation of dissident composers who resisted the edicts of Socialist Realism. These composers, each pushing the boundaries of composition in their own individual ways, were a testament to Liatoshynsky’s effectiveness as a pedagogue and an inspiration for new modes of composition. These students in turn inspired their professor, leading the composer to return to his more modernist tendencies with the composition of his Fourth Symphony in 1963.