Virko Baley


Viroslav Petrovych Baley is a Ukrainian-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He was born in Radekhiv in Poland, the only child of Petro and Lydia Baley. Petro Baley was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, and he and extended family were relocated to Slovakia. The family was reunited on a farm in Germany towards the end of the war to work as farm laborers, after which they relocated to Munich. From 1947 to 1949, the family lived in a displaced person's camp in Regensburg, Germany.
Baley began his formal music training in Germany. He studied at the Los Angeles Conservatory.
He retired from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with the rank of Distinguished Professor of Music Composition after an academic career there lasting 46 years.
Baley is the former conductor of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra and was the guest conductor of the Kiev Camerata in Ukraine. He also co-directs Nevada Encounters of New Music, and collaborates with the New Juilliard Ensemble in New York. Baley composed the score to the 1991 Ukrainian film Swan Lake, The Zone.
In Spring 2007, Baley was commissioned by the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University to write his opera Hunger.
As a producer, and through his record label TNC, Virko Baley has released a series of compact discs containing rare recordings of the pianist Sviatoslav Richter and of the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the latter earning him a Grammy Award.
Baley has written articles on musical topics and is a contributing editor to The [New Grove Dictionary of Opera] and The [New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]. From 1980 to 1995, He co-founded the Nevada Symphony Orchestra and was its music director from 19711985, and from 1975 to 1987 was the music director of the Las Vegas Chamber Players.

Partial discography

  • Jurassic Bird
  • Orpheus Singing
  • Dreamtime
  • Symphony No. 1: Sacred Monuments"
  • Treny" for two cellos and soprano"
  • X-Treme Violin"
  • Parables and Reflections; music for bassoon and piano"
with other composers
  • 20th Century Concert Etudes ; Eugene Gratovich, violin; features the work "Figments for violin solo"
  • "A Tree in Your Ear" ; Stephen Caplan, oboe; features the work "Orpheus Singing"
  • "Artyomov/Baley/Silvestrov/Ives: Orchestra Works" ; features the work "Violin Concerto No. 1; quasi una fantasia"; Yuri Mazuekevich, violin
  • *Kiev Camerata, Vol. 2" ; features the work "Adam's Apple"
as conductor/performer
  • Cantatas: Valentin Silvestrov" ; with the Kiev Camerata and Lidia Stovbun
  • The Body of a House: music of Walter Blanton" ; Kiev Camerata; New World Brass Quintet: Walter Blanton, trumpet; Timothy Bonenfant clarinet; Marcus Reddick, percussion; Miles Anderson, trombone; Erika Sharp, electric violin; Roy James, percussion; "Rite of Passage"; "Locust Dance"; "Bleecker Street Romance"; "Concertino for Trumpet and Small Orchestra"; "Wind Songs"; "Whales"; "The Body of a House"
  • Dies Irae: Valentin Bibik" ; Kiev Camerata; Grigory Vershavsky, organ; Alexander Shustin, violin; Natalia Bibik, piano; Viktoria Bibik, piano; "Symphony No. 7, op. 50"; "Sonata for violin and piano, op. 111"; "Dies Irae: Thirty-nine variations for piano, op. 97";
  • Transfigured Night " ; features the works "Verklärte Nacht" by Arnold Schoenberg; "Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201 " by Wolfgang A. Mozart; "Symphony No. 10 in F sharp minor" by Gustav Mahler
  • Kiev Camerata, Vol. 2" ; "Concerto for chamber orchestra in E flat major " by Igor Stravinsky; "Siegfried Idyll" by Richard Wagner; "Concertino for 9 instrumentalists" by Ivan Karabyts; "Intermezzo for violin & orchestra" by Valentin Silvestrov; "Adam's Apple" by Virko Baley
  • Eclipse-Music of Bernard Rands" ; Kiev Camerata; Thomas Paul, bass; "London Serenade"; "Madrigali "; "Canti Dell'Eclise"
  • Mozart's Last Thoughts" ; Kiev Camerata; David Gresham, bassett clarinet; features Mozart's works "Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622"; "Adagio and Fugue for string quartet in C minor, K. 546"; "Fugue for 2 pianos in C minor, K. 426": "Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551"
  • "Artyomov/Baley/Silvestrov/Ives: Orchestra Works" ; Yuri Mazuekevich, violin; Mykola Suk, piano; Elissa Stutz, piano; "Concert of the Thirteen" by Vyacheslav Artyomov: "The Fourth of July" by Charles Ives: "Postludium for piano and orchestra by Valentin Silvestrov: "Violin Concerto No. 1; quasi una fantasia" by Virko Baley

    Partial list of works

  • Partita No. 5 for flute and piano
  • Hunger Opera in one act
  • Persona III for flute and castanets
  • Partita No. 4 for clarinets and piano
  • Songs Without Words for solo instrument and piano
  • Emily Dickinson Songbooks
  • Symphony No. 2: "Red Earth" for an orchestra of soloists
  • Et lux perpetua...
  • Dreamtime Suite No. 4 for chamber orchestra
  • Persona II for clarinet solo
  • A Journey After Loves: A song-cycle for baritone and piano
  • Symphony No. 1: Sacred Monuments
  • Klytemnestra, a dramatic scene
  • Persona I for oboe solo
  • Treny I - IV for 2 celli & soprano
  • Treny II for solo bassoon
  • Treny IA for solo contrabassoon
  • Orpheus Singing" for solo oboe and string orchestra
  • Nocturnal No. 6" for piano
  • Nocturnal No. 5" for piano
  • Sculptured Birds" for clarinets and piano
  • Nocturnal No. 4" for piano
  • Nocturnal No. 3" for three pianos
  • Nocturnal No. 2" for piano
  • Nocturnal No. 1" for piano
  • Violin Concerto No. I "Quasi una fantasia" -Yuri Mazurkevich, violin; the USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra, Virko Baley ; recording: 1981 by Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga