Arkady Filippenko

Arkady Filippenko (Ukrainian: Аркадій Филипенко) (1912 - 1983) was a Soviet Ukrainian composer. He was born in the small village of Pushcha-Vodycia, now a suburb of Kyiv (Kiev). As a pre-schooler, he spent a great deal of time outdoors with his grandfather, a shepherd who played and made pastoral pipes akin to those of the Swiss. The shepherd's pipe was the first instrument he learned to play. In grammar school, he learned the guitar, mandolin and balalaika and played in the school orchestra.