Levko Revutsky

Levko Mykolaiovych Revutsky (Ukrainian: Левко Миколайович Ревуцький; 20 February [O.S. 8 February] 1889 – 30 March 1977) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer, pedagogue, and public figure.

Amongst his students at the Lysenko Music Institute were the composers Arkady Filippenko and Valentyn Silvestrov.

Levko Mykolayovych Revutsky was born on 20 February [O.S. 8 February] 1889 in Irzhavets, Priluksky Uyezd of the Poltava Governorate (presently in the Chernihiv Oblast) in Ukraine). His father was a trustee of a rural school. The parents of the future composer were well-educated. His musical talent showed up very early and his mother began to teach young Revutsky to play the piano when he hardly was five years old. By age ten, he showed skill at improvisation and had perfect pitch, earning him the nickname "Tuning fork".

In 1903, his parents transferred Revutsky to Kiev's Gotlib Valker gymnasium and simultaneously the music school of Mykola Tumanovsky where he studied fortepiano with Mykola Lysenko. Revutsky later recalled, "Lysenko became for me the first example of artistic ideals."

Graduating from the gymnasium in 1907, he entered the physic-mathematics faculty of Kiev University. In 1908, Revutsky also entered law school and at the same time renewed piano classes at the Kiev music college run by the Russian Musical Society. He was greatly impressed by visits to Moscow and Saint Petersburg where he attended the theatre and concerts.

In three years of studies in the premiere course of the school Revutsky had considerable successes. In 1911 he graduated to the higher level in the class of G. Hodorovsky. Revutsky's studies in the class of this master lasted a few years: from 1911 to 1913 year in musical school, and afterwards in the newly opened Kiev conservatory. In the conservatory, Revutsky simultaneously with his piano studies begins to visit Glière's composition classes. He continued his university studies.

The first part of piano sonata (in C minor), sketches for the first symphony, and the prelude of opus four were created at this time. Revutsky graduated from both the university and conservatory in 1916, and went to fight in World War 1.

Demobilized in 1918, Revutsky moved to Pryluky. In 1924, Revutsky was invited to Kiev to work as a teacher at the Lysenko Music-Drama Institute. From this time he gave himself to pedagogical work, initially as teacher, and then as professor of music-theory and performance and composition .