Ihor' Shamo

Ihor Naumovich Shamo was born in Kyiv on 21 February 1925 and died in the same city on 17 August 1982. He was one of the Ukrainian composers of the second half of the twentieth century, best known for his lyrical and patriotic songs, although he also cultivated instrumental, symphonic and stage music.

His training was interrupted by the war. In 1941 he left the N. Lysenko secondary school of music in Kyiv to begin studies at a medical institute; the following year he enlisted as a volunteer and, until 1946, served as a medical orderly at the front. He eventually completed his studies at the Kyiv Conservatory in 1951, in the class of Lyatoshyns'ky. He received the titles People's Artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1975) and the Taras Shevchenko State Prize (1976).

His songs enjoyed great national success in his lifetime, and some have endured far longer, such as Kieve miy ('My Kyiv'), regarded as the city's unofficial anthem. Although he rarely drew on folk melodies, he took melodic turns from Ukrainian and Russian songs and incorporated them into works of very varied genres. In his instrumental music, which is programmatic in character, he combined accessible imagery with a fresh idiom, which gave these works a popularity almost equal to that of his songs. The piano suite Kartinï russkikh zhivopistsev ('Pictures of Russian Painters') remains part of the teaching and concert repertoire in Ukraine.

In his orchestral works, which are lyrical and often dramatic, one finds a symphonic way of thinking, which uses monothematicism to achieve structural unity. His only opera, Yatranskiye igrï ('Games of Yatransk'), is unusual in being written for a cappella chorus and a quartet of soloists, and it is built from sources of calendar, ritual and lyrical folk songs.

His most recognisable legacy is his songs, which remain associated with Kyiv, but his instrumental and symphonic output completes a broad catalogue that includes symphonies, string quartets and more than three hundred songs.