Shtoharenko, Andrii

Shtoharenko, Andrii [Штогаренко, Андрій; Štoharenko, Andrij], b 15 October 1902 in Novi Kaidaky, now part of Dnipro, d 15 November 1992 in Kyiv. Composer and pedagogue. In 1912 he entered the Russian Music Society’s music school in Katerynoslav. He organized his own orchestra in Dnipropetrovsk during the 1920s and taught singing in high schools. Shtoharenko was recruited in 1930 to study composition with Semen Bohatyrov at the Kharkiv Conservatory. He graduated in 1936 and gained immediate recognition with the symphonic cantata Pro kanal's'ki roboty (About the Canal Work, 1936). He occupied several key administrative positions in the musical hierarchy of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1944 he became vice-chairman of the Union of Composers of Ukraine, and in 1948–54 he was vice-chairman of the USSR Union of Composers. In 1954–68 he was a teacher of composition and rector of the Kyiv Conservatory. In 1968 he became head of the Faculty of Composition there and head of the Union of Composers of Ukraine. Shtoharenko’s works include the symphonic cantata Ukraïno moia (My Ukraine, 1943), the Kyiv Symphony (1972), symphonic suites, a violin concerto, chamber and choral pieces, art songs, incidental music, and film scores. His biography, by M. Borovyk, was published in Kyiv in 1965. He was awarded the Shevchenko State Prize in 1974.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]