Composer Fedir Akimenko (Yakymenko; b. 1876, Pisky, Ukraine, d. 1945, Paris, France), the older brother of composer Yakiv Stepovy, was recruited by the Imperial Court Chapel Choir in St. Petersburg at age 10. There he studied piano with Mily Balakirev and composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov, graduating from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1900 or 1901. He subsequently taught at the Tbilisi School of Music, in Nice, his native Kharkiv, the Moscow Conservatory and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where his pupils included Igor Stravinsky, and during which time he was an active member of the city’s Ukrainian Art and Literary Society. In 1924 he joined the faculty of the Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute in Prague, where he wrote the first Ukrainian textbook on counterpoint, harmony and theory. From 1928 onward he lived in France.

As a composer Akimenko is associated with the Symbolist movement. Although he is regarded primarily as a miniaturist, having composed more than 50 art songs, numerous solo piano pieces and works for chamber ensemble, he also wrote symphonic music, operas and ballets.

The Alberta Parents for Ukrainian Education Society (APUE) is a non-profit organization and was incorporated in September 1984 – exactly 10 years after the foundation of the Ukrainian Bilingual Program (UBP) – with a goal to provide opportunities for parents of students in the province's varied Ukrainian programs. It is a provincially incorporated body of six parental groups involved in Ukrainian bilingual education in six of Alberta’s school districts: UBLA = Ukrainian Bilingual Association - Edmonton Public Schools, PAC = Edmonton Catholic School Parental Advisory Society, Brentwood Ukrainian Bilingual Committee, Bilingual Ukrainian Catholic Parent Society of Sherwood Park, Bonnyville Ukrainian Cultural Society, and LUBA = Lamont UBLA.

APUE acts as an umbrella organization in the province of Alberta of these parental organizations and is “a spokesman”, “a coordinated voice for the continued support, promotion and expansion of Ukrainian language education in Alberta’s schools”. APUE serves as a subcommittee of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (UCC) and deals exclusively with educational matters. APUE’s primary objective is to ensure that each child in the Province of Alberta can acquire Ukrainian language and cultural knowledge through access to Ukrainian Bilingual Programs.

APUE’s activities include recruitment campaigns, organizing events, for instance, conferences, festivals, and the Ukrainian Daycamp, promotion, ministerial correspondences and meetings, and assistance of the UBP’s establishment in Calgary.

APUE has one staff member – the Ukrainian Bilingual Coordinator, who is hired under the auspices of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee - Alberta Provincial Council (UCC-APC). Seconded to APUE, the Bilingual Coordinator acts as their facilitator, and coordinates their efforts in continuing the program's growth and expansion, liaising with parents’ groups associated with the program throughout Alberta, and maintaining contacts with school divisions and the provincial government.