Virko Baley

Who is Virko Baley?

Virko Baley is a renowned Ukrainian-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He was born in Radekhiv, Union of Soviet Socialist Republic, the only child of Petro and Lydia Baley. Before he had celebrated his first birthday, Hitler's army had invaded Poland and World War II had begun. The war defined Baley's early years, and gave him a very different view of life and the world than children born in the United States during those same years. His father was interred at the concentration camp in Auschwitz following the German invasion. Baley, his mother, uncles, aunts and grandmother were relocated to Slovakia. The family was reunited on a farm in Germany near the end of the war to work as farm laborers, after which they relocated to Munich. From 1947 to 1949, the Baleys lived in a Displaced Persons camp in Regensburg, Germany.

Baley began formal music training in Germany and later studied at the Los Angeles Conservatory.

Baley is a Distinguished Professor of music composition at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Baley is the former conductor of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra, and is the current guest conductor of the Kiev Camerata in Ukraine. He also co-directs N.E.O.N., Nevada Encounters of New Music and often collaborates with the New Juilliard Ensemble in New York. Baley composed the score to the 1991 Ukrainian film Swan Lake, The Zone.