Andrij Hnatyshyn

Andrij Hnatyshyn [Андрій Гнатишин] (b. December 26, 1906, in Chyzhykiv, Lviv county, Galicia; d. September 3, 1995, in Vienna). Composer and conductor. He was a graduate of the Lysenko Higher Institute of Music in Lviv and the Vienna Conservatory. In the 1930s, he became the conductor of the choir at Saint Barbara’s Church in Vienna. He also worked as a conductor in various theaters in Vienna and in motion pictures, and often performed Ukrainian music on the Vienna Radio. He composed over 100 choral works and art songs written to poems by Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesia Ukrainka, as well as by German poets. Among his works are choral arrangements of folk songs, several liturgies and other church services, several cantatas, an oratorio, an opera (Olena, 1980), and various instrumental pieces (a string quartet, a trio, and “The Ukrainian Suite”). The Austrian government honored Hnatyshyn with the title of Professor and Pope John XXIII awarded him the Silver Cross.

1934-1995: Director of St. Barbara’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Vienna, Austria).