Leonid A. Grabovskiy

Composer. Born in 1935 in Kiev. In 1954–1959, he studied composition at Tchaikovsky Kiev State Conservatory under Lev Revutsky and Boris Lyatoshinsky. His diploma work “Four Ukrainian Folk Songs” for choir and orchestra in 1959 was awarded the first prize at the All-Union Competition of Young Composers. He finished postgraduate course (supervisor—B. Lyato­shin­sky) in 1962. He wrote “Symphonic frescoes” based on the paintings by B. Prorokov from the series “This Should Not Be Repeated” (1961), “Five Poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky” for baritone and piano (1962), “Four Inventions” and “Five Characteristic Pieces” for piano (1962) at the time. In the second half of the 1960s, he was a member of “Kiev Avant-Garde”—an informal group of composers. He taught music theory and composition at Kiev Conservatory (1966–1969). In 1981, he moved to Moscow, where he worked as an editor of the journal “Soviet Music.” He participated in the organization and was a member of the Association of Contemporary Music (ACM-2). In 1989, he left for USA at the invitation of the Ukrainian Musical Society.