A composer, singer (tenor), and teacher born in the village of Dvorichnyi Kut near Kharkiv, Honored Artist of the Uzbek SSR and the RSFSR.
He studied at the Kharkiv Conservatory (1914-1918) and the Musical and Drama Institute (1914-1918). Dramatic Institute (1924) and the Leningrad Conservatory (1937), where he taught (1944-45 and 1948-65).
He was a soloist at the opera houses of Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Odesa (1926-1931), as well as the Maly Opera House and the Philharmonic in Leningrad.
Performer of roles: Kobzar (Taras Bulba by M. Lysenko), Maksym Berkut (The Golden Hoop by B. Liatoshynsky), Godun (The Rift by V. Femelidi), Matyushenko (Battleship Potemkin), etc. Works: operas: "Judith" (1923), "The Apple Tree Captivity" (1931), "Battleship Potemkin" (1937, 2nd ed. 1955), "Daughter of the Caspian Sea" (1942), "Lesya Veresai" ("Miners", 1949), etc.
For symphony orchestra: "Ukrainian Suite on Themes of Folk Songs" (1944), 2 overtures, Ukrainian Rhapsody, music to Taras Shevchenko's "Nazar Stodola", solos (50) to the words of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, P. Tychyna, and others.
From the collection of arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs (75); music for performances.
