Hryhoriy Veryovka

Hryhoriy Huriyovych Veryovka (21 October 1964) was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer and choir director.

He is best known for founding the renowned Veryovka Choir in 1943, and leading it for many years, gaining international recognition and winning multiple awards. Veryovka was also a professor of conducting at the Kyiv Conservatory, where he worked alongside faculty including Boleslav Yavorsky, Alexander Koshetz, Mykola Leontovych, and Mykhailo Verykivsky.

Career Veryovka was born in an old Cossack town of Berezna (today urban-type settlement). He was the son of a peasant-craftsman who was the regent of a church choir and also played the violin. His mother was also involved in music, and performed many songs in the Ukrainian language.

In 1923, he began to work as the choral conductor at his alma mater until 1927, and he also worked at the First Kyiv Music College and at the Ukrainian Republican Philharmonic. Right before the outbreak of World War II, he was working as the conductor of the choir for the Bilshovyk factory in Kyiv and returned to teaching at the Kyiv Conservatory. The first concert of the choir took place in August 1944 following the liberation of Kyiv, and it later made its first international tour in 1952 in Romania.

Upon his death in 1964 he was buried in Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv, and in 1967 a monument was erected at the site of his burial in his honor. In addition, in 1970, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the building where he lived in Kyiv, 5 Lva Tolstoho Street, which was sculpted by E. Fridman. There are streets named after him in Kyiv and Bucha.