Volodymyr Kozhukhar

Volodymyr Markovych Kozhukhar (; 16 March 1941 – 3 December 2022) was a Soviet and Ukrainian conductor and academic teacher who focused on opera. Most notably, he conducted and taught in Kyiv and Moscow, among other places.

His first post was chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Ukrainian SSR, producing several recordings. In Moscow, he was chief conductor of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre from 1977 and professor of orchestral conducting at the Gnesin Music and Pedagogy Institute from 1978. In Kyiv, he directed the National Opera of Ukraine from 1989 to 2011, and taught at the Kyiv Conservatory from 1993. He conducted both internal operatic repertoire and stage works by Ukrainian composers, and took the opera company on tours throughout Europe, Canada, and Japan.

Kozhukhar received the Order of Merit of Ukraine, 1st class in 2016.

Biography Youth and education Kozhukhar was born in Vinnytsia. According to a 2011 interview, Kozhukhar was drawn to conducting at the age of 18, when he was enrolled at the Kyiv Conservatory as an instrumentalist who also composed music as a hobby. He also spent much time studying orchestral scores, which caught the attention of fellow students and, later, school administrative staff. Despite being invited to study conducting, Kozhukhar initially declined the offer. His teachers persuaded him to reconsider, telling him that "a single orchestral instrument [was] not enough" for him.

He proceeded to study conducting with Mikhail Kanerstein at the Kyiv Conservatory and graduated from there in 1963.