Юлій Мейтус

Yuliy Sergeievitch Meitus (b. 28 January [O.S. 15 January] 1903 in Elisavetgrad – 2 April 1997 in Kiev), was a distinguished Ukrainian composer, considered the founder of the Ukrainian Soviet opera. His early style was modernistic, later he used more traditional neo-Romantic idioms.Meitus was born to a Jewish family. In 1919 he graduated from the School of Music in piano from Heinrich Neuhaus, and from the Kharkiv Institute of Music and Drama in the composition class of C. Bogatyrenko in 1931. During World War II he was evacuated to the Turkmen SSR. Meitus made his debut in film in 1932. He is famous for his 18 operas, a number of orchestral works and about 300 songs on Ukrainian and Russian classical poems, among them Stolen Happiness, the epic Yaroslav the Wise, Daughter of the wind, Leila and Majnun, Young Guard, and Abakan. He was buried in the Baikove Cemetery.