Valentyn Borysov
Valentyn Borysov (full name Valentyn Tykhonovych Borysov; 20 July 1901 – September 1988) was a Ukrainian Soviet composer, professor, musical public figure, and teacher. He was born in Bohodukhiv, Kharkiv Governorate, Russian Empire, and died in Kharkiv at the age of 87 from laryngeal cancer. He was married to the musicologist Lina Tyumeneva.
In 1927 Borysov graduated from the Kharkiv Music and Drama Institute, where he studied composition with Semen Bohatyryov. He worked as a music editor for Ukrainian Radio and Kharkiv Regional Radio, and as executive secretary of the regional branch of the Union of Composers of Ukraine.
From 1941 to 1942 he lived in Dagestan, serving as head of the music department of the Committee for Arts Affairs, artistic director of a concert bureau, and head of music at the puppet theatre in Makhachkala. After moving to Tashkent in 1942, he wrote the symphonic Poem of the Motherland.
Borysov returned to Kharkiv in 1944 and taught composition, orchestration, and score reading at the Kharkiv Conservatory, where he was a lecturer, associate professor, and acting professor. He chaired the board of the Kharkiv organization of the Union of Composers of Ukraine from 1944 to 1948 and served as rector of the Kharkiv Conservatory from 1944 to 1949. From 1973 he headed the Department of Composition and Orchestration at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts, becoming a professor in 1977.
He was one of the co-authors of the State Anthem of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1971 he received the title Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, and he was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honour, an Honorary Certificate of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, a certificate from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR, and medals.
Borysov composed symphonic and chamber music, choral works and songs, arrangements of folk songs, and music for theatre productions. His orchestration was regarded as a particular strength of his work. His major orchestral works include Four Ukrainian Songs (1953), Symphonies No. 1 (1957), No. 2 (1963), and No. 3 for string orchestra (1978), the ode In Memory of the Fallen (1967), the suite Divertissement (1972), two piano concertos (1973 and 1979), and Music for Strings (1977).
His vocal-symphonic works include the cantata Folk Festival (1952), to words by F. Holubnychyi, and the nine-part oratorio The Wedding (1973) for two soloists, chorus, and orchestra. His chamber works include three string quartets, a Prelude and Fugue on Ukrainian and Russian Folk Themes for piano (1954), and choral and vocal pieces such as The Village Lies in the Valley (1948), to words by Ivan Franko, and Lenin's Testament (1949), an a cappella chorus.
A memorial plaque marks the house at 3 Kultury Street in Kharkiv where Borysov lived and worked.