Iryna Mykolaïvna Vilinska. The Composer in the Uk- rainian School of Vocal Arts

Abstract

I. M. Vilinska was one of the leading Ukrainian vocal teachers of the second half of the 20th century. She is well known far beyond the borders of Ukraine. However, information about her in modern musicology sources is fragmentary and often inaccurate. It is possible to cite only two main sources with brief biographical data about I. M. Vilinska [19; 26]. The relevance and Importance of the work is to present for the first time the biography and to review some aspects of the creative life and pedagogical school of I. M. Vilinska. The relevance of the problem is also due to the need to present unique material of significant historical and cultural value related to I. M. Vilinska and her family. The primary goal set by the authors was to provide a biographical chronicle and consider some aspects of the professional and creative life of the teacher and composer I. M. Vilinska, simultaneously placing all that into the contemporaneous cultural and historical context.The methodology is based on the scientific study of the composer-vocalist's archive, research in other archives (in Ukraine and abroad), a thorough analysis of documents, as well as personal conversations with I. M. Vilinska (authentically communicated recollections), conversations with her colleagues and students. Structurally the work is represented by a chronological narrative, which is reviewed in the historical context. The authors survey a number of biographical facts and conveying characteristic events in order to better depict the personality of I. M. Vilinska, as well as to communicate a sense what (with a certain irony) can be called «l'esprit du temps» of the past epoch. An additional task is to correct mistakes, inaccuracies and to compensate for the censorship gaps of the outdated musicological sources.Conclusions. I. M. Vilinska contributed immensely to the field of the practical vocal arts pedagogy and its theory. The vocalises by I. M. Vilinskaya were a kind of concentrated projection of her original teaching method. The overall influence of which on vocal pedagogy still awaits its full assessment. The archive of the composer-vocalist contains a substantial body of unpublished works and papers; therefore the work is far from its completion.