Virko Baley

Viroslav Petrovych Baley (born October 21, 1938, known by the diminutive Virko) is a Ukrainian-American composer, conductor, and pianist. He was born in Radekhiv in Poland (now in Ukraine), the only child of Petro (Peter) and Lydia Baley. Petro Baley was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, and he and extended family were relocated to Slovakia. The family was reunited on a farm in Germany towards the end of the war to work as farm laborers, after which they relocated to Munich.