Sichynsky, Denys

Sichynsky, Denys [Січинський, Денис; Sičyns’kyj], b 2 October 1865 in Kliuvyntsi, Husiatyn county, Galicia, d 6 June 1909 in Stanyslaviv. Composer, conductor, and teacher. He received his musical training in Ternopil and at the Lviv Conservatory (1888–91) and then organized and conducted the choral association Boian in Lviv, Kolomyia, Stanyslaviv, and Peremyshl. From 1899 he lived in Stanyslaviv, where he founded a music school and organized the Muzychna Biblioteka music publishing association, which printed numerous works by Ukrainian composers. He was also active in establishing the Union of Song and Music Societies.

Sichynsky is considered to be the first professionally trained Ukrainian composer in Galicia. His compositions include the opera Roksoliana (libretto by V. Lutsyk and Stepan Charnetsky, 1908); works for symphony and chamber orchestras; piano solos; choral music, including the cantata Lichu v nevoli (I Count the Days and Nights in Bondage; text by Taras Shevchenko); a score for a liturgy; approximately 20 art songs for solo voice to texts by T. Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Bohdan Lepky, Uliana Kravchenko, and Heinrich Heine; and arrangements of folk songs. His biography, by Stefaniia Pavlyshyn, was published in Kyiv in 1956 (2nd edn, 1980). Sichynsky’s complete art songs were published in Canada in 2016 by the Ukrainian Art Song Project.

[This article was updated in 2018.]