Yakov Stepovoy

Yakov Stepovoy, born Yakov Stepanovich Yakimenko, was a Ukrainian composer and music teacher. He was born in Kharkiv on October 20, 1883, and was the brother of the composer F. S. Akimenko.

From 1895 to 1898 he sang in the boys' choir of the Court Singing Chapel, and then studied in the chapel's classes until 1902, where he trained in piano and conducting. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory in 1909, completing his final examinations in 1914, and studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov.

Between 1912 and 1914, Stepovoy published articles and reviews in the journal Music in Moscow and in the Russian Musical Gazette. From 1914 to 1917 he served in the army as a clerk on a medical train.

He took part in the creation of the Mykola Lysenko Symphony Orchestra, a string quartet, and the People's Conservatory in Kyiv. From 1917 to 1919 he taught music theory subjects at the Kyiv Conservatory. Beginning in 1919, he headed the music section of the All-Ukrainian Arts Committee under the People's Commissariat of Education of the Ukrainian SSR, and also directed the music division of the Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater, while leading a vocal ensemble.

Stepovoy wrote works for choir and piano, as well as art songs and arrangements of revolutionary songs and Ukrainian and Russian folk songs. His vocal music included the song cycles Barvinky, on texts by Ukrainian poets, and Songs of Mood, on words by Oleksandr Oles. He also set texts by Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, and Maksym Rylsky.

Among his other vocal works were satirical anti-religious songs and songs on revolutionary themes, including The Stonecutters, The Blacksmith, In the Valley Lies a Village, and The Word. He also composed songs for children, gathered in such collections as For Little Children, Snowdrops, 5 School Choirs, and Kobzar.

His instrumental works included a Romance for violin and piano, a Cantabile for cello and piano, and several piano compositions, among them Prelude in Memory of Shevchenko, a Sonata, a Fantasy, Two Rondos, two suites on Ukrainian folk themes, and other pieces.

He died of typhus in Kyiv on November 4, 1921, and was buried at Baikove Cemetery.

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