Kyrylo Stetsenko

Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko (Ukrainian: Кирило Григорович Стеценко; May 12, 1882 – April 29, 1922) was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became a Ukrainian Orthodox priest and head of the Music section at the Ministry of Education of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic. Biography Early life and education Kyrylo Stetsenko was born in Kvitky, in the land of Cherkashchyna, in Ukraine. His father, Hryhoriy, was a painter of icons and was known around for painting churches in nearby villages. His mother, Mariia, was the daughter of a deacon in the same village. Kyrylo was eighth of eleven children. When Kyrylo Stetsenko was aged 10, his maternal uncle Danylo Horyanskyi took him to study at the Saint Sophia Church School, where the boy was enrolled for five years, from 1892 to 1897. The young boy lived with his uncle in Kyiv, only returning home to his parents during the summer. However, since his family was poor, the boy had to work during this "vacation", and his mother would spend the money that he earned on new clothes for him. During his studies at the school, Stetsenko sang in the school choir and after three years, he already conducted the group. The boy also learned how to play the harmonium and the piano. At age thirteen, wrote his first composition: I Will Always Praise the Lord for choir. Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary Finishing his school education in 1897, Stetsenko began to attend the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary. Many of his original choir works composed made during this period. An important milestone in his development as a composer was his acquaintance with Mykola Lysenko, which later grew into a friendship. Stetsenko first met the Ukrainian composer in 1899 and became part of Lysenko's choir as a singer and an assistant-conductor.