I was born in Tarascha, Kyiv Province on November 15, 1948. When 5, my family moved to Bila Tserkov, where I went to school.

Tell about your path to music.

First, I studied at a 5 - year music school in Bila Tserkov. In 1962, a boarding school for gifted kids was opened in Kyiv at Lysenko music school. Its teachers traveled throughout Ukraine to select pupils and I was lucky to be selected. It happened so, that at the same time Volodymyr Ivasyuk was also selected. We were good friends till he’s gone. I’m awfully sorry this talented and creative person’s life came to an end so abruptly.

At that time I mastered guitar... Later it was Kyiv State Conservatory of Music after P. Tchaikovsky, where I studied bayan and choir conducting. I was a good student and was granted a scholarship. After graduating from the Conservatory I went through military service. Then I taught music at a music faculty of the Kyiv Pedagogical Institute for some time. In 1978 I was enrolled to Odessa’s Conservatory to study music composition.

Do you think it necessery to have got a basic musical education?

Any real composer must have a special basic education, and his further success certainly lies with his or her talent.

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