Timofiy Bilohradsky

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Timofy Bilohradsky (Ukrainian: Тимофій Білоградський) also (Belogradsky, Pelogradsky) (approximately 1710 — c. 1782) was a Ukrainian lutenist, composer and kobzar-bandurist who was active in St. Petersburg and Königsburg.

Little is known about his childhood. He is thought to have been born near Cherkassy and it is thought that he learned to play the kobza and lute at the Hlukhiv Music Academy in Ukraine. He had an excellent voice and great musical aptitude. In 1725 he was invited to St Petersburg to sing in the Imperial Church Capella. In 1733 Tsarina Anna sent Bilohradsky to Dresden in the retinue of the ambassador Count Keyserlinck to perfect his lute playing under the tutelage of Silvius Leopold Weiss - the most important lutenist-composer of the 18th century. He also studied voice with Faustina Bordoni-Hasse, and castrato Annibali. Bilohradsky as a result became one of the highest trained musicians in the Russian Empire.

In 1739 Bilohradsky returned to St Petersburg, where he continued to work as a court musician. In 1741 he returned to Germany where he became renown as a virtuoso lutenist and singer and lived in Königsberg where he had a number of students - Johann Reichardt (father of Johann Friedrich Reichardt), and Johann Georg Hamann, the Sturm-und-Drang philosopher.

In his last years he lived in Petersburg. The so-called "Moscow Weiss Manuscript" is ascribed to Bilohradsky or his circle.

As a composer Bilihradsky is known for a set of songs and romances to the texts by Sumarokov.

Bilohradsky's daughter Yelizaveta (Elizabeth) became a famous opera-singer of the Imperial St. Petersburg opera.