Микола Вілінський

Following the wishes of his father, Vilinsky was initially educated for a career as a lawyer, but then changed to study music at the Odesa Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1919. He taught and composed there for twenty years. During the Second World War he and his family was evacuated from Odesa to Tashkent, where he continued to teach and compose. After the end of the war, he returned to Ukraine and became a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory, where he remained until his death in 1956. His students included Kostiantyn Dankevych, Oleksandr Bilash, Oscar Feltsman, David Gershfeld, and Anton Mucha.
Mykola Vilinsky was one of the founders of modern Ukrainian music and the creator of the Ukrainian piano ballad genre. Vilinsky's output includes symphonic suites, music for piano, and arrangements for choir and solo voices of Ukrainian, Russian, Moldavian folk songs. His daughter, Iryna Vilinska was also a professor of music and a composer.