Oleksandr Koshyts

It was my honor to show the world the soul of our people.

Oleksandr Koshyts

Oleksandr Koshyts was a Ukrainian choral conductor and composer, one of the founders of the Ukrainian Republic Capella, which made Ukrainian songs, particularly Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk,” famous christmas song worldwide.

He was born in 1875 in the village of Romashky in Kaniv region into a family of a priest. He graduated from the Bohuslav religious school and the Kyiv Theological Academy and studied at the Mykola Lysenko Music and Drama School. Upon earning a theology degree, he dedicated himself to teaching before embarking on a mission to collect and document Ukrainian Cossack songs in Kuban region from 1903 to 1905. Koshyts received an invitation to conduct at M. Sadovsky’s theater in 1912. There he staged several operas by Mykola Lysenko. In 1916-1917, Koshyts was the conductor and chief choirmaster of the Kyiv Opera. In January 1919, with Kyrylo Stetsenko, he created the Ukrainian Republic Capella by order of Symon Petliura. Under Koshyts’ leadership, the Ukrainian government dispatched the Capella in March 1919 to showcase the nation’s musical art globally. The Capella achieved resounding success with performances throughout Western Europe, the United States, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, and Cuba. In 1922, in New York, the Capella performed the famous “Shchedryk” by Mykola Leontovych for the first time, which became the most popular Christmas melody in the world. Since 1926 Koshyts lived in New York, worked in the United States and Canada, taught conductors, composed church music, and arranged folk songs, popularizing Ukrainian music. In 1944, the artist passed away in Winnipeg and was laid to rest in the Glen Eden Memorial Park. This site is where notable members of the Ukrainian Orthodox community in Canada are buried.