Vasily Pavlovich Ovchinnikov is an actor, director and playwright.
He worked in Moscow. He sang in Mykola Lysenko's choir. In 1895, he bought a bandura in Kharkiv. He worked in the troupe of Marko Kropyvnytskyi and learnt to play the bandura from him. In 1912, he organised the production of a series of banduras by the music company A. Kalpus and Co. He used as a model the instrument of bandura player Andrii Voloshchenko, a student of Mykhailo Kravchenko.
He is the author of the Self-Teacher for Playing the Bandura (Moscow, 1914). He published 1000 copies at his own expense. He is also credited with composing the music for the world-famous song with lyrics by Mykhailo Starytskyi, "What a Moonlit Night".
In 1934, he was arrested and there is no evidence of him after that.
