Barnych, Yaroslav

Barnych, Yaroslav [Барнич, Ярослав; Barnyč, Jaroslav], b 30 September 1896 in Balyntsi, Kolomyia county, Galicia, d 1 June 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio. Composer, conductor, and pedagogue. He worked in Galicia, Transcarpathia, and, from 1950, in the United States. His music education was completed at the Lviv Conservatory. As a soldier of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, he was a composer and conductor at the Theater of the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (1916–17). Barnych worked as conductor for the Ukrainska Besida Theater in Lviv (1917–23) and the Ruthenian Theater of the Prosvita Society in Uzhhorod (1923–5). In 1939–41 he conducted the Stanyslaviv symphony orchestra, and in 1941–4 he was the conductor of the Lviv Opera Theater. He composed the following operettas in the Viennese style: Sharika, Pryhody v Cherchi (Adventures in Cherche), Hutsulka Ksenia (Ksenia the Hutsul Girl), and Divcha z Maslosoiuzu (Girl from Maslosoiuz), providing his own librettos for the first two. He also composed music for theater performances, choral music, symphonic music, and art songs.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 1 (1984).]