Haivoronsky, Mykhailo

Haivoronsky, Mykhailo [Гайворонський, Михайло; Hajvorons’kyj, Myxajlo], b 15 September 1892 in Zalishchyky, Galicia, d 11 September 1949 in New York. Conductor and composer. A graduate of the Lysenko Higher Institute of Music in Lviv, he organized and conducted the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Band (1914–19) and then served as chief bandmaster of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic. From 1920 he taught music and conducted various choirs in Lviv. In 1923 he immigrated to the United States, where he founded (1930) and conducted the United Ukrainian Chorus. He composed many songs of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, choral works, church music, and instrumental music for violin, string orchestra, band, and symphony orchestra. He also arranged many folk songs and compiled a number of songbooks. A monograph on him by Wasyl Wytwycky appeared in New York in 1954.

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