Lev Kolodub

Lev Kolodub (1930–2019), was a Ukrainian composer and teacher, Honored Artist of Ukraine (1973), People's Artist of Ukraine(1993). He was born in Kyiv in a n family of an opera singer, her grandmother was a music teacher. He studied at the Kharkiv Secondary Specialized Music Boarding School as a clarinetist, later at the Kharkiv Conservatory as a composer. After graduating from the conservatory in 1954, he worked in Kiev. From 1958 to 1960, he taught music theory at the Kyiv Theater Institute, and from 1966 he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory. Since 1985 - professor. In 1997, he headed a recently established Music Information Technology Department in Kyiv Conservatory. In 1994-1997, he was the chairman of the Kyiv branch of National Union of the Composers of Ukraine. Since 1997 - Corresponding Member, and since 2005 - Academician of the Academy of Arts of Ukraine. He died on February 23, 2019 in Kyiv at the age of 89. The creative legacy of Levko Kolodub includes 4 operas, 4 operettas, 2 ballets, 12 symphonies, numerous concertos for wind instruments with orchestra, as well as chamber music and music for cinema. Pieces for wind instruments hold a special place and have been highly appreciated by Ukrainian musicians. His symphonic music is based in Ukrainian folklore and usually carries some kind of an agenda. The 9th, 10th and 11th symphonies were awarded with the Shevchenko National Prize. Although he was never part of the avant-garde movement of the 1960s, he was a composer of interesting and colourful music and always a superb craftsman.