VOLODYMYR ZAHORTSEV was born on October 27, 1944 in Kyiv. He began taking private music lessons at the age of fifteen (Faina Kalikhman taught piano, and Osii Huberman taught music music theory). After completing the programme of the music school and college in three years, he entered the composition department of the Kyiv Conservatory (1962). He was a part of Borys Liatoshynsky’s class, but after he died, Zahortsev continued his studies with Andrii Shtoharenko as his instructor. After graduating from the Conservatory, he worked as an editor at the publishing house Musical Ukraine (1968–1974). In 1971 he was admitted to the Union of Composers along with Yevhen Stankovych, a representative of the next generation of Ukrainian artists—the Seventiers.

While still at the Conservatory, Zahortsev joined a circle of Kyiv avant-garde artists and recent students of Liatoshynsky: Leonid Hrabovsky, Valentyn Sylvestrov and Vitaliy Hodziatsky. However, the almost ten-year age gap and, accordingly, different life experiences affected the closeness of their relationship in a certain way: as Hrabovsky said, “Not everyone in our group tolerated him.” However, Zahortsev’s extremely rapid evolution, his undoubted talent, and his desire to learn something new and focus on the stylistic discoveries of modern Western composers give every reason to regard this artist as the youngest representative of the Kyiv avant-garde of the 60s.

Zahortsev's creative activities were interrupted by non-musical circumstances twice: firstly, by military service in the Soviet Army, and secondly, by being in a penitentiary for the charge of excessive self-defence. After each of these forced pauses, the composer's style took on a new shape. The general vector of its evolution can be defined as moving from the distilled sounds of the avant-garde to the clarification of musical language.

Zahortsev's music has been performed both in Ukraine and abroad: in the USA, Germany, Slovakia, and the UK. The symphonic Graduations (1966) were performed with great success by the New York Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta in 1980. In 1997, the composer was awarded the Borys Liatoshynsky Prize. In 2002 and 2004 he held workshops in Germany.

Voldoymyr Zahortsev died in Kyiv on November 30, 2010.

(Written by Yuriy Chekan)