Dmytro Bortniansky

Composer of spiritual music. Born in the Ukrainian Cossack town of Hlukhiv in the family of Lemko-Rusyn refugee Stefan Škurat (1751). Graduated from the Hlukhiv School of Music and Choral Singing (1758). Sang in the Court Capella in St Petersburg. Director of the Imperial Choir (1780–84), the future Paul I’s court choir and the Court Capella (from 1796). Raised the standards of the Court Capella and developed the traditions of the national school of choral singing. Initiated the acquisition of a plot of land on the River Moika Embankment with two houses, garden and courtyard, now known as the Mikhail Glinka Academic Capella of St Petersburg (1810). Connoisseur of the fine arts and collector of painting. Honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1804). Died in St Petersburg and buried at the Smolensk Cemetery (1825), reburied at the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery (1953).