Real name: Вірко Балей

Effective period / Period of releases: 1994

Virko Baley (Ukrainian: Вірко Балей), born in 1938 in Radekhiv, Ukraine, is a composer, pianist and author. He is the founder and Director of the Las Vegas Chamber Players and Annual Contemporary Music Festival at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Baley is described by the San Francisco Chronicle as "...exceptional at every turn, not only in the West, but internationally." He studied piano with Earl Voorhies and Rosina Lhevinne and is a graduate of the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts, now California Institute of the Arts. A Los Angeles Times review commented: "A deeply resourceful pianist... his readings are thoughtful, pertinent and fluent." A composer and author, he wrote a book on the music of Soviet Ukraine and another for University of California Press, entitled "Contemporary Piano". He received a grant from the Nevada State Council on the Arts to compose three works, including one for Miles Anderson, with whom he just finished recording an album of French trombone music for Crystal Records. He has been on the faculty of University of Nevada, Las Vegas.