Lysko, Zenowij

Composer and scholar Zenowij Lysko (b. 1895, Rakobuty, Ukraine, d. 1969, New York, USA) laid the foundations of Ukrainian musicology in the United States. Born into a priestly family, he studied philosophy at Lviv University and piano and theory with Stanyslav Liudkevych at the Lysenko Music Institute. Drafted into the Austrian army during World War I, he joined the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen following the war. He continued his studies at the Lviv Underground Ukrainian University and the Lysenko Institute, as well as studying composition privately with Vasyl Barvinsky. He later enrolled in Charles University in Prague, where he also studied privately with Fedir Akimenko. During this period he became interested in folklore and ethnomusicology. He taught music at the Drahomanov Ukrainian Pedagogical Institute in Prague (1924-29), graduated from the State Conservatory of Czechoslovakia in 1927 and obtained his doctorate from the Ukrainian Free University in Prague in 1928. He taught at the Kharkiv Conservatory, the Stryi Branch of the Lysenko Higher Institute of Music, the Lviv Conservatory and was editor-in-chief of the journal Ukraïns'ka muzyka. After the Second World War he lived in Germany, before settling in New York in 1960, where he taught at the Ukrainian Music Institute from 1961 until his death.

As a composer, he was most active during his Prague period, completing an orchestral suite, string quartet, piano sonata, song cycles and arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. As a scholar, he collected 1,400 Ukrainian folk songs, which were published in ten volumes. He also amassed a substantial archive.