Mikhail Minsky (birth name: Michael Minsky; * 12 August 1918, Bagaevo, Kazan Province, Russia - † 9 October 1988, Zwolle, Netherlands) was a Ukrainian and Russian concert, chamber and opera baritone singer.
During his long career, he was a soloist of many Ukrainian and Russian emigrant choirs, including the Ukrainian Trembita Choir of Kyrylo Tsependa (1945-1946), the Ukrainian Bandura Choir of Taras Shevchenko Hryhoriy Kitastyi (1946-1978), Serge Zharov's Russian Don Cossacks Choir (1964-1979), Mikhail Minsky's Russian Slavic Zwolle Choir (1978-1982), the Russian Ural Cossacks Choir in The Hague (1982-1984), the Russian Ural Cossacks Choir in Germany (1984-1988), and the Russian Cossacks Choir in Rijswijk (1988).
Biography
Russian period
Mikhail Minsky began to take an early interest in music and singing and played the accordion. From 1935, he studied at the Faculty of Labour, then studied geology at Kazan University, while also studying singing at the vocal department of the college. In 1941, he became a member of the Academic Choir, where he was noticed by M. V. Vladimirova, who offered him to study at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. However, these plans were scattered by the Second World War. Minsky was drafted into the Red Army and later, while staying with the occupying Red Army in Ukraine, he was captured by the Germans.
Ukrainian and German periods
As a prisoner of war, Minsky found himself in Ukrainian lands, where he became fascinated by Ukrainian folk song and music. While working as a forced labourer near the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, Minsky discovered that his boss was a singer in Platov's Don Cossacks Choir, and it was from him that Minsky learned about Serge Zharov's Russian Don Cossacks Choir in Paris, which Minsky would later join in 1964.
After the war, from 1945 to 1948, Minsky stayed in various refugee camps in Germany, where he sang in the Trembita Choir under the direction of Kyrylo Tsependa. In 1946, he became a member and soloist of the Taras Shevchenko Bandura Choir under the direction of Hryhoriy Kitastyi, who was based in Germany at the time.
The American period
In 1949, Minsky was invited to the United States with the Bandura Band to perform. The same year, he was received at the White House. Mykhailo stayed in New York and received a scholarship to study. Minsky also took an active part in the cultural life of the Ukrainian community: he gave many individual concerts and participated in all the concerts and concert tours of the Bandura Band in the USA and Canada. His first disc was released in 1950. Between 1950 and 1962, he released 20 more long-playing discs together with famous composers from the Ukrainian diaspora: Mykola Fomenko, Ihor Sonevytskyi, Volodymyr Hridyn, Professor Zh. He also continued to perform as a soloist with Hryhoriy Kitastyi's Bandura Choir, working together with I. Zadorozhnyi, V. Bozhyk, and H. Kitastyi. In 1958, Minsky toured Canada, the USA and Europe with the Bandura Quintet.
On 21 February 1953, Mykhailo received American citizenship and changed his surname from Spirin to Minsky. In addition to singing Ukrainian and Russian folk songs in the United States, Minsky began to pay considerable attention to vocal studies, which later allowed him to become an opera singer. Minsky first studied in New York and New Orleans, and later in Rome and London. He made his operatic debut in 1953 at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Mikhail has performed and sung roles in operas such as Il Trovatore, Aida and Pagliacci in theatres in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Holland, Belgium, Canada and the USA.
The period of Russian Cossack choirs
In the 60s, Minsky spent more and more time in Europe. In the early 60s, he sang in Sergei Gorbenko's Russian Black Sea Cossack Choir in Hamburg and also performed as a guest in the Russian choirs Rodina and Dacha in Hamburg. In 1964, in Lucerne, Minsky joined the Zharov Cossack Choir, where he sang until 1979.
In 1972, and again in 1984, Minsky made successful concert tours of Australia organised by the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations. During Minsky's tour in Australia, he gave 10 solo concerts in major Ukrainian settlement centres in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth and Geelong.
Later in the 1970s, Mykhailo Minsky released a series of long-playing records of Ukrainian songs in collaboration with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, as well as with contemporary Ukrainian composers Mykola Fomenko, Ihor Sonevytsky and Andriy Hnatyshyn.
The Dutch period
In 1978, Minsky finally moved to Zwolle, the Netherlands. In Zwolle, he organised an amateur group called the Slavic Choir of Zwolle. After the choir's successful performances, Minsky was invited to conduct the Ural Cossacks Choir in The Hague (1982-1984). He also managed to work with the Ural Cossacks Choir in Germany (1984-1988) and the Cossack Choir in Rijswijk (a suburb of The Hague).
In 1988, Mikhail Minsky received an award from the mayor of Zwolle for the glorification of the city. Minsky devoted the last year of his life to preparations for the celebration of the millennium anniversary of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus in the Netherlands. The celebration of this event took place in Zwolle on 30 September 1988 in the presence of high clergy and Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
Mykhailo Minsky died 9 days later.
Discography
Minsky's discography includes the following lifetime discs (most of which were recorded in the 1960s and 1970s at the Ukrainian diaspora studio in New York, Arka Ukrainian Records), and the most important posthumous releases
Discs released during his lifetime
Mourn the trembito / Zasumuj Trembito (1951)
Get up people / Wstawaj Narode (19??)
I miss something very much today / Ja siohodni szczos duze sumuju (19??)
Whore the wind / Powiy Witre (???)
Forget me / Zabud mene (1955)
May's night (1974)
Black forest (1975)
And you shall rise, Ukraine! (1977)
Goddess of the Steppe (197?)
Strings of heart (197?)
Songs from Ukraine. Lieder Der Ukraine. Weites Land am Djepr (Michael Minsky Und Das Original Balalaika-Orchester "Domra" (197?)
Posthumous discs
From Russia with Love (2002)
Songs of Don Cossack (2004)
Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus (Michael Minsky et al., Brilliant Classics, 2009)
My Dreams (2012)
Hetmans of Ukraine (2012)
Spring's Dreams (2012)
