Kotorovych was born on July 3, 1941, in the small Polish town of
Hrubieszów. In 1945, his family moved to
Volhynia, and later to
Lviv. In Lviv, he completed music school and, after one year of study at the
Mykola Lysenko Lviv National Music Academy, was invited to the
Moscow Conservatory to study under the renowned pedagogue
Yuri Yankelevich. As a student, Kotorovych became a laureate of several prestigious international competitions, including the
Paganini Competition in
Genoa and the
George Enescu International Competition in
Bucharest. After graduating from the conservatory in 1966, he became the concertmaster of the State Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine and a soloist with the
Kyiv State Philharmonic. From 1967, he taught at the
Kyiv Conservatory, later serving as head of the violin department. Starting in 1994, he also taught at the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Australia. In 1995, with the aim of fostering "high culture and elitism," he established the first Bohodar Kotorovych International Competition for Young Violinists in the United States. Among his students were
Oleksandr Semchuk (Ukraine/Italy), Alina Komissarova (
Denmark), Sviatoslava Semchuk,
Bohdana Pivnenko (Ukraine), Yaroslav Rudnytsky (United States),
Dmytro Tkachenko (United Kingdom), Oleksandr Pushkarenko, and members of the Kyiv-based Collegium Quartet, Taras Yaropud and Kyrylo Sharapov, as well as his daughter,
Myroslava Kotorovych. From 1995, Kotorovych led the State Chamber Ensemble "Kyiv Soloists," which he founded (now the
National Chamber Ensemble "Kyiv Soloists" named after Bohodar Kotorovych). Over time, the ensemble gained international acclaim. Kotorovych frequently served as a jury member for major international competitions, including the
ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the
Paganini Competition in Genoa, the
Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the
Carl Nielsen International Competition in Odense, and the Benjamin Britten Competition in London, among others. He also consistently chaired the jury of the
Mykola Lysenko International Music Competition in Kyiv and, from 2003, served as the artistic director of the Britten Kyiv Festival. Kotorovych died on July 4, 2009, and was buried in
Kyiv at the
Baikove Cemetery. == Awards and honors ==