Platon Maiboroda
Platon Maiboroda (1918–1989) was a Ukrainian Soviet composer, film composer, music teacher, and folklorist. He was born on December 1, 1918, in Pelekhivshchyna, in a peasant family, and became interested in folk instruments as a child.
On the recommendation of Levko Revutsky, Maiboroda entered the Kyiv Music College, completing its program in two years, from 1936 to 1938. He then studied composition under Revutsky at the Kyiv Conservatory, graduating in 1947. Alongside his formal studies, he studied Ukrainian folk song, attended lectures on Ukrainian folklore, and took part in annual folklore expeditions.
In 1945, Maiboroda led a military song-and-dance ensemble in Vienna. From 1947 to 1949, he taught theoretical subjects at the Kyiv Music College. He became a member of the Union of Composers of Ukraine in 1947.
His output included more than 200 songs and choral works, as well as symphonic music, folk-song arrangements, and scores for theater and film. His best-known songs included “The Towel” and “Kyiv Waltz,” both set to words by Andriy Malyshko. The 1950 “Kyiv Waltz” became an unofficial anthem of Kyiv, and its refrain served as the call sign of Kyiv Radio. His other works included the oratorio “Thought About the Dnieper” and the 1986 collection Ukrainian Folk Songs Recorded by Platon Maiboroda.
Maiboroda received the Stalin Prize, third degree, in 1950 for three songs: “About Olena Khobta,” “About Mark Ozerny,” and “About Maria Lysenko.” He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1979, and his music for the film Young Years received first prize at the 1959 All-Union Film Festival in Kyiv. He died in Kyiv on July 8, 1989, and was buried at Baikove Cemetery.