Vasily Zagorsky
Vasily Zagorsky, also known in Romanian as Vasile Zagorschi, was a Moldavian Soviet composer, pianist, and teacher. He was born on February 27, 1926, in Kara-Makhmet, Ismail County, Romania, and died on October 1, 2003. He was the author of romances, instrumental pieces, symphonies, cantatas, a ballet, and film music.
He studied at the secondary school in Chișinău from 1941 to 1944, then at a secondary school in Râmnicu Vâlcea from 1944 to 1945. In 1952 he graduated from the Chișinău Conservatory, where he studied composition in the class of Professor L. S. Gurov.
From 1947 to 1951, Zagorsky taught theoretical subjects at a ten-year music school. From 1951 to 1953 he was a teacher and deputy director of the music college in Chișinău. In 1957 to 1959 he served as deputy director for academic and research work at the Chișinău Conservatory, where he became an associate professor in 1970.
From 1959 to 1962 he was director of the Moldavian Opera and Ballet Theatre. Beginning in 1956 he was a member of the board of the Union of Composers of the Moldavian SSR, and from 1964 he served as its chairman. From 1968 he was secretary of the board of the Union of Composers of the USSR.
From 1978 to 1990, he was a member of the Executive Council of the International Music Council of UNESCO. Among his honors were the title of People's Artist of the Moldavian SSR in 1982, the title of Honored Art Worker of the Moldavian SSR in 1960, and the State Prize of the Moldavian SSR in 1968 for his Rhapsody for violin, two pianos, and a group of percussion instruments. He also received the Order of the Republic in 1997 and two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour.