Pokrovsky, Mykola

Pokrovsky, Mykola [Покровський, Микола; Pokrovs'kyj], b 28 October 1901 in Tulchyn, Bratslav county, Podilia gubernia, d 16 July 1985 in Odesa. Opera conductor. He first studied choral music under Mykola Leontovych, and following Leontovych’s tragic death, Pokrovsky became a conducted of his choir. A graduate of the Lysenko Music and Drama Institute (1925), Pokrovsky studied under Mykola Malko and Borys Liatoshynsky. In 1924–6 he worked as music director at Les Kurbas’ Berezil theater and then conducted opera at Odesa Opera and Ballet Theater (1926–33, 1944–75), Kharkiv Theater of Opera and Ballet (1934–40, 1941–4), and Lviv Theater of Opera and Ballet (1940–1). He premiered Borys Yanovsky’s The Black Sea Duma (1929), Valentyn Kostenko’s Karmeliuk (1930), and Kostiantyn Dankevych’s Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1951). From 1947 he taught at the Odesa Conservatory.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]