Hnatyshyn, Andrii

Hnatyshyn, Andrii [Гнатишин, Андрій; Hnatyšyn, Andrij], b 26 December 1906 in Chyzhykiv, Lviv county, Galicia, d 3 September 1995 in Vienna. Composer and conductor. A graduate of the Lysenko Higher Institute of Music in Lviv and the Vienna Conservatory, in the 1930s he became the conductor of the choir at Saint Barbara's Church in Vienna. He has worked as a conductor in various theaters in Vienna and in motion pictures, and has often performed Ukrainian music on the Vienna Radio. His original compositions include over 100 songs for chorus and art songs written to poems by Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka and to German poems, arrangements of folk songs for chorus, several liturgies and church services, an oratorio, several cantatas, an opera (Olena, 1980), and some instrumental (a string quartet, a trio, and The Ukrainian Suite). In recognition of his compositions the Austrian government awarded Hnatyshyn the title of professor and Pope John XXIII awarded him the Silver Cross.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]