Composer. An important Russian musician of the early Soviet period. His conservative but inventive style combined Classical form with Romantic expression, spiced with folk elements from Russia and Eastern Europe. Kosenko was born in St. Petersburg and raised in Warsaw. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1915 to 1918 and was then active as a concert pianist and teacher. Most of his music was written in the liberal atmosphere the USSR enjoyed during the 1920s. Creative conflicts with the new Stalin regime prompted Kosenko's move to Kiev in 1929, where he taught at the Lysenko Institute and was appointed professor of the Conservatory in 1934. He died of a heart attack at 42, leaving an opera, "Marina", unfinished. His compositions include a Violin Concerto (1919), three Piano Sonatas (1922 to 1929), the Piano Trio (1927), Violin Sonata (1927), a Piano Concerto (1928), the "Heroic Overture" (1932) and "Moldavian Poem" (1937) for orchestra, and several piano pieces and songs. For many years Kosenko's reputation was confined to the Ukraine, where he is considered a cultural icon, and it was only after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 that his music began to be heard in the West. A Ukrainian postage stamp was issued in his honor in 1996.
Composer. An important Russian musician of the early Soviet period. His conservative but inventive style combined Classical form with Romantic expression, spiced with folk elements from Russia and Eastern Europe. Kosenko was born in St. Petersburg and raised in Warsaw. He studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1915 to 1918 and was then active as a concert pianist and teacher. Most of his music was written in the liberal atmosphere the USSR enjoyed during the 1920s. Creative conflicts with the new Stalin regime prompted Kosenko's move to Kiev in 1929, where he taught at the Lysenko Institute and was appointed professor of the Conservatory in 1934. He died of a heart attack at 42, leaving an opera, "Marina", unfinished. His compositions include a Violin Concerto (1919), three Piano Sonatas (1922 to 1929), the Piano Trio (1927), Violin Sonata (1927), a Piano Concerto (1928), the "Heroic Overture" (1932) and "Moldavian Poem" (1937) for orchestra, and several piano pieces and songs. For many years Kosenko's reputation was confined to the Ukraine, where he is considered a cultural icon, and it was only after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 that his music began to be heard in the West. A Ukrainian postage stamp was issued in his honor in 1996.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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