Fedir Stepanovych Akimenko (Yakymenko)
20 February 1876, Pisky - 3 January 1945, Paris
About
Fedir Akimenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist and teacher. He was the brother of the Ukrainian composer Yakiv Stepovyi (pseudonym Yakiv Yakymenko).
He comes from the village of Pisky near Kharkiv. At the age of ten, Yakymenko was selected for the Court Chapel in St. Petersburg. In 1886-1895, he studied piano with the Russian composer and pianist Milius Balakirev. In 1900, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory (composition class of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Anatoly Lyadov). From 1897 he worked as a teacher at the conducting courses of the Court Chapel. Later he became the director of music schools in Tbilisi in the Caucasus (1901-1903) and in Nice (France, 1903-1906). In 1914, he was invited to teach composition and music theory at the St Petersburg Conservatoire (he worked there until 1923). Among his students was the outstanding twentieth-century composer Igor Stravinsky.
After a short stay in Kharkiv, from 1924 he worked for some time as a professor of music at the Ukrainian Drahomanov Higher Pedagogical Institute in Prague. His "Practical Course in the Science of Harmony in Two Parts with a Problem Book" (Prague, 1925) was published at that time. Among his students were Zynoviy Lysko, Mykola Kolessa, and others. In addition to teaching, Yakymenko performed as a concert pianist and choir conductor. Since 1928, he lived in France (Nice, Paris), where he died. He was buried in Paris at the Batignolles Cemetery (field 29).
Works by Fedir Yakymenko
- 4 Romances to the texts of Apollon Maykov, Alexei Pleshcheyev and Mikhail Lermontov, for
- voice and piano, op. 1 (1896)
- 4 Romances to the texts of Lermontov, Maykov and Kareyev, for voice and piano, op. 2 (1898)
- “Rusalka” (Water nymph), for voice and piano, op. 4 (1899)
- 4 Romances, op. 5 (1900)
- 4 Romances to the texts of Alexander Pushkin, for voice and piano, op. 6 (1899)
- 3 Romances, op. 8 (1901)
- “Chisto vechernee nebo” (Clear evening sky), lyrics by Lermontov
- 5 Romances to texts by Semyon Nadson, for voice and piano, op. 61
- “Ozymandias” to the text by Percy Bysshe Shelley, translated by Konstantin Balmont, for voice
- and piano (1933)
- Romance for bass and piano (1933)
- “Tol'ko uznal ia tebia” (As soon as I found you) to a text by Anton Delvig, for voice and piano
- 2 Symphonies (1899?)
- Concert Overture (1899)
- Fantasia for Orchestra (1900)
- Poème lyrique, op. 20 (1899)
- Nocturne for String Orchestra (1910)
- Symphonic Poem Rusalka (Water nymph), after Mikhail Lermontov (1922)
- Ballet Suite, op. 50 (1916)
- Orchestral Suite in G minor
- Trio for Violin, Viola and Cello in C Major, op. 7 (1897)
- Romance for Viola, op. 13 (1902)
- Sonata for Violin and Piano, op. 32, no. 1 (1901)
- Air lointain for cello and piano (1903)
- Berceuse de Noël for violin and piano (1936)
- Eclogue for violin or viola and piano (“Méditation,” “Le rêve,” Scherzo), op. 38
- Évocation for violin and piano (1924)
- Sonata for Cello and Piano no. 1, (1906)
- Sonata for Cello and Piano no. 2, op. 37 (1908)
- Mélodie russe for cello and piano