Yudif Rozhavska

Yudif Grigorevna Rozhavskaya (12 November 1923-10 March 1982) was a Ukrainian pianist and a versatile composer who worked in many genres, including serialism.

Rozhavskaya, whose nickname was “Didi,” was born in Kyiv. She began playing piano at age five, and was considered a prodigy. She earned graduate and postgraduate degrees at the Kyiv Conservatory (today the Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music) where her teachers included E. Slyvak (piano) and Matvey Akimovich Gozenpud (composition). She married the poet Rurik Nemyrovskyi.

Rozhavskaya composed more than 100 songs and 50 romances, many for children, based on texts by Anna Akhmatova, George Byron, Ivan Franko, Vitalii Korotych, Mikhail Lermontov, Alexander Pushkin, Maksym Rylskyi, Taras Shevchenko, Volodymyr Sosiura, Pavlo Tychyna, Lesia Ukrainka and others. Other compositions included:

Ballet

Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors Tyav and Gav

Kazka Pro Zagublenii Chas (for children)

Orchestra

Dnipro Symphonic Poem

Fantasy for Folk Instrument Orchestra

Piano

Piano Concerto

Piano Sonata

Variations on a Ukrainian Theme (two pianos)