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Dr Oleksander Koshetz (September 14, 1875 – September 21, 1944) was a Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer, ethnographer, writer, and lecturer. He helped popularize Ukrainian music around the world. (Template:Lang-uk, Oleksandr Koshyts’, first name sometimes translated Alexander)

At one time, a performance of Koshetz’s Ukrainian National Chorus held the world record for audience attendance, excluding sporting events. George Gershwin is said to have based his song “Summertime” on a Ukrainian lullaby, “Oi khodyt’ son”, which he heard in a New York City performance by the choir.

Biography

Koshetz was born in the village of Romashky in Kiev Guberniya. He graduated from the Kiev Theological Academy in 1901, then studied in the Lysenko School of Music and Drama, 1908–1910. He taught choral music at Kiev’s Imperial Conservatory of Music, conducted the Sadovsky Theatre Orchestra, served as conductor and choirmaster of the Kiev Opera, and collected Ukrainian and Cossack folk songs from the Kiev and Kuban regions respectively.

In 1917 Koshetz married a former student and singer in his choirs. His wife Tetyana Koshetz (1892–1966) was a vocalist in the Ukrainian National Chorus, voice teacher, and after 1944 curator of the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre in Winnipeg.

Koshetz was co-founder and Conductor of the Ukrainian Republican Capella (later renamed Ukrainian National Chorus). The choir toured Europe and the Americas in 1919–1924 and 1926–27, in support of the international Ukrainian community.

He moved to New York City in 1922 where he collected liturgical music, arranged and popularized Ukrainian folk music. Koshetz also documented the choir’s travels in the memoir With Song, Around the World (З піснею через світ).

From 1941 Koshetz spent the summer months teaching in Winnipeg, Canada, where he died in 1944 at age 69. The O. Koshetz Choir in Winnipeg is named in his memory.

References

• Koshetz, Oleksander (1952–1974) З піснею через світ: подорож української республиканської капелі (Z pisneiu cherez svit: podorozh ukrains’koi respublikans’koi kapeli), 3 volumes. Winnipeg, Культура і освіта (Kul’tura i osvita).

The personal archives of Olexander and Tetyana Koshetz remain at the Ukrainian Cultural and Education Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

• Ukrainian musicians
• 1875 births
• 1944 deaths