Mykola Mykolayovych Vilinsky was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer who held senior chairs at the Odesa Conservatory and later the Kyiv Conservatory. He wrote articles on Ukrainian and Moldovan music, and was a music critic and an expert on the works of the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko.

Oleksandr Ivanovych Bilash was a Soviet and Ukrainian composer and the author of popular lyric songs, ballads, operas, operettas, oratorios and music for films. Laureate of the Shevchenko National Prize (1975), People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1977), People's Artist of the USSR (1990), Hero of Ukraine (2001).