Shklyar Yefrem (Efraim) Ilyich (1871, Timkovichi, Minsk Governorate ― 1941, Riga) ― composer, teacher, conductor. In 1895―99 he studied at the St Petersburg Conservatory (composition theory class of N. Rimsky-Korsakov). One of the initiators of the founding of, and an active figure in, the “Society for Jewish Folk Music.” From 1908 ― member of the music committee of the “Society for Jewish Folk Music” in St Petersburg and director of the choir he had founded.
From 1910 he lived in Riga. He occasionally performed in concerts as a conductor, in particular in Riga in 1910―11 and in Dubulti in 1913, with the Riga Symphony Orchestra.
He was mainly engaged in teaching. In 1910―16 he was a teacher at the Schule der Tonkunst and at the Music College of the Imperial Russian Musical Society (IRMS), teaching theory, solfège, chamber music, and instrumentation.
From September 1916 ― director of the IRMS Music College, which was evacuated to Yuryev, and a member of the artistic council of the Riga branch of the IRMS.
In 1922 he returned to Riga, giving private lessons. In 1924―25 he worked as director of the Jewish Folk Conservatory. From the 1930s he taught music and directed the children's choir of the Jewish Public Gymnasium. He occasionally gave lectures on music and held concerts of his own works (8 February 1913 ― at the Riga school of the IRMS; 13 December 1924 ― at the Blackheads' House; 1 March 1925 ― in Liepāja; 9 March 1925 ― in Kaunas; 9 April 1931 ― a jubilee concert at the Latvian Conservatory). He wrote works for orchestra (including the “Symphonic Scherzo”), choral works: the sacred cantata “At Rachel's Tomb” for symphony orchestra and choir; works for choir and piano: “In the Land of the Pyramids,” “Sabbath Twilight,” “Farewell to the Sabbath,” “Golden Peahen,” “The Old Question,” “The Sorrowful Mourner,” “Khatskele,” “Hope” (1910); “Arise, My People,” “Lullaby” for children's choir and piano (1921); romances: “Enchanted by the Rose, the Nightingale…” (1901), “The Little Lark,” “Lullaby,” “Over a Fresh Grave,” “Spirits of Heaven,” “The Ferry,” “Jerusalem” (1910), “On Parting” (1914), and others. He arranged synagogue melodies and Jewish folk songs of everyday life, including “Tsipele”; piano works (including a gavotte). Sh.'s music is characterised by a strongly pronounced national colour.

Lit.: SKV. P. 15; Mikhailets M. The Riga Period of E. Shklyar's Life From the History of Jewish Music in Russia. St Petersburg, 2001. Pp. 101―108; [Review of the jubilee concert] Segodnya vecherom. 1931. No. 78.

M. Mikhailets