Alexander Zhuk
Alexander Abramovich Zhuk (23 October 1907 – 31 October 1995) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, conductor, and music teacher. Born in Poltava, he was the brother of the violinist Isaac Zhuk and became a member of the Union of Composers of Ukraine in 1938.
Zhuk worked at the Children's Opera School in Poltava in 1925–1926. He moved to Kharkiv in 1926 and was a pianist and accompanist at the Red Cooperator club from 1927 to 1930. He entered the Kharkiv Music and Drama Institute in 1928, studying piano with P. Lutsenko. He graduated from the historical and theoretical faculty of the Kharkiv Conservatory in 1936, where he studied with S. Bohatyryov, and completed composition studies with M. Tits in 1938.
From 1930 to 1937, Zhuk taught music-theory subjects at the music studio of the Railway Workers' Palace of Culture and at the Workers' Conservatory, now an evening music school. He taught at the Kharkiv Music College and Kharkiv Conservatory from 1937 to 1941, while also serving on the board of the Kharkiv branch of the Union of Composers of Ukraine from 1939 to 1941. During 1941–1944, he was musical director and conductor of the Taras Shevchenko Russian Drama Theatre in Leninogorsk, Kazakh SSR.
After returning to Kharkiv, Zhuk taught at the Kharkiv Music College from 1944 to 1967. He headed the music-theory department of the Kharkiv Theatre Institute from 1950 to 1954. From 1961 he taught at the Kharkiv Institute of Culture, where he led the Department of Music Theory and Piano between 1964 and 1969. He later chaired the auditing commission of the Kharkiv branch of the Union of Composers of Ukraine from 1970 to 1974.
His works included the vocal-symphonic poem Sailor Zheleznyak (1935), to words by M. Holodnyi; a Symphony (1938); a Sinfonietta for chamber orchestra (1992); and a Piano Concerto (1957). His concertante music also included Rondo-Fantasy for violin and orchestra (1939), a Violin Concerto (1982), the Festive Overture for folk-instrument orchestra (1954), and Ukrainian Fantasy for the same ensemble (1971).
Zhuk wrote two string quartets, in 1935 and 1959, a Piano Trio (1947), and a Piano Quintet (1972). His piano works included a Suite (1950), three Poems (1950, 1956, and 1970), three Concert Études (1961), Ukrainian Rhapsody (1963), and Heroic Sonata (1965). He also composed works for violin and piano, including Aria (1936), Poem (1949), and Humoresque (1956), as well as Intermezzo (1965) and two concert pieces for cello (1994), choral works, romances, and music for theatre productions.
His theatre scores included music for Marko Kropyvnytskyi's comedy They Were Left Looking Foolish (1942) and for The Sea Has Spread Wide by Vsevolod Azarov, Vsevolod Vishnevsky, and Alexander Kron (1943). In 1947, he was one of the co-authors of the music for the anthem of the Ukrainian SSR. Zhuk died in Kharkiv on 31 October 1995.