Michael Minsky
Michael Minsky ( born August 12, 1918 in Bagajewo, Tatarstan, † October 9, 1988 in Zwolle, Netherlands); actually Mikhail Grigoryevich Spirin, Ukrainian Mykhailo also Minskyj, was a Russian singer. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of Russian and Ukrainian song and was a soloist and conductor of the Don Cossacks briefly Choir Serge Jaroff.
Life
Minsky learned to play on the bayan. In 1935 he went to Rabfak ( Faculty of workers ) and then studied geology at the University of Kazan. In 1941 he became a member of the academic choir, where he was selected by Maria Vladimirovna Vladimirova for the visit of the Moscow Conservatory.
On 22 June 1941 Minsky was called up for army. His training as a soldier, he was in Saratov. He was taken prisoner and remained 33 months in the front zone. While he worked at the Hungarian border as forced laborers, his superior was a singer of Platoff Don Cossack Choir, and the latter told him of Serge Jaroff Don Cossack Choir.
From 1945 to 1948 Minsky in various refugee camps. On November 3, 1945, international choir Trembita was founded under the direction of Kyrilo Tsependa in Bad Hersfeld. This choir gave concerts in other camps, including 1946 in Ingolstadt and on 15 November 1948 in Bad Kissingen. Then Minsky was transferred to the camp Karl field. In this camp, the culture was strongly encouraged. After the dissolution of the camp, the refugees were divided on the bearings Berchtesgaden and Mittenwald. 1948 Michael came in Regensburg with the Ukrainian Bandura Chorus Taras Sjevchenko in contact.
Together with the Banduristenchor Minsky was invited to the United States, where he arrived on May 5, 1945 and was received in the same year in the White House. Minsky stayed in New York City, where he studied on a scholarship. He was to participate in various operas and operettas obliged inter alia on October 2, 1949 Mansonic Auditorium. The first recordings emerged 1950. 1953 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall. In 1954, he starred in Philadelphia in Aida. However, he continued to perform as a soloist in Banduristenchor and worked with Gregory Kytasty. On February 21, 1953 Michael received an American citizen and changed his name from Spirin to Minsky.
In 1958 he traveled with a group of members of the Banduristenchores by Canada and the United States to prepare for a tour. On 18 November, he sang during a tour of Europe (England, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands ) with the Banduristenchor at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. At that time his residence Detroit. From the beginnings in 1948 to 1984, he always returned as soloist for this choir. When he studied with another scholarship in Rome, he was received in 1959 by the Pope.
In the early 1960s he sang at the Black Sea Cossack Choir and appeared as a guest in the Rodina in Hamburg (1962, 1963, 1964). As Rodina closed its doors on March 31, 1966, he sang from 1966 to 1968 in the dacha. Again, with a scholarship, he studied in New Orleans and sang the role of Papageno in The Magic Flute. At the beginning of 1963 he sang in the opera company La Scala in Philadelphia. From 1 September 1963 to 31 August 1964 he sang in the musical theater in the Revier in Gelsenkirchen. Since 1948, Michael Minsky was in contact, but only in the fall of 1964, he joined the Choir of Serge Jaroff in Lucerne at. By the spring of 1979, he remained there. On April 22, 1966, he gave another concert in Mansonic Auditorium.
In the years 1972 and 1984 Minsky toured Australia and recorded a number of records with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Finally, he settled permanently in 1978 in Zwolle in the Netherlands and founded here on January 7, 1980 in a mixed Slavic chorus. After several months of rehearsals, this choir gave his first major concert in May 1980 and entered a few times on TV. After this success he was offered from 1982 to 1984, the baton of the Hague Amateur Ural Cossacks choir. From 1984 to 1988 he was musical director of the Ural Cossacks choir in Germany. He also made concert tours with the Volga Cossacks. In 1984 he founded an amateur Cossack Choir in Rijswijk, but this choir did not meet his expectations. It followed an invitation from Otto Hofner, the impresario and friend of Serge Jaroff, the original Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff according to the request with Nicolai Gedda as soloist to revive. He directed the 1986 tour of Germany. Since Nicolai Gedda because of his age did not want to occur every night and Minsky became ill, it was in this tour.
He was involved in the organization of the Dutch celebration of the millennial anniversary of the Christianization of Russia and the existence of the Russian Orthodox Church. This nationwide celebration took place in the presence of Queen Beatrix in Zwolle on 30 September 1988.