Oleksandr Mykhailovych Taranets (26 March 1924 in the village of Zelene, Petrivskyi district, now Kirovohrad region, Ukrainian SSR - 27 February 1998, Vienna, Austria) was a Ukrainian concert and chamber singer (lyric baritone). People's Artist of Ukraine (1984).
Biography
He was born in 1926. He took two years to go to the front. Participated in the German-Soviet War.
After demobilisation (in 1947), he graduated from the Dnipro Music College.
He received his higher vocal education at the Kyiv Conservatory (1951-1955, class of Ivan Patorzhynskyi), where he was admitted to the second year of studies.
Since 1953, he has been a soloist with the Ukrainian State Variety Orchestra (since 1959 - Ukrconcert).
The singer's repertoire included works by Ukrainian and Russian composers - Mykola Lysenko, Nikolai Glinka, K. Vilboa, Y. Stepovyi, V. Kosenko, Bilash, A. Filipenko, P. Mayboroda (the first performer of the "Song about a Towel"), I. Shamo, as well as Ukrainian folk songs.
Laureate of the Republican Vocal Competition in Kyiv (1959, second prize). He toured abroad with concerts. He has recorded many Ukrainian folk songs and songs by Ukrainian composers.
The first performer of the songs "We'll go where the grasses are sloping", "Marichka", "Song about a towel", "Ash trees", "Chernobryvyi", "My path", "A swallow came" and others. He participated in the soundtrack of 48 films, including "Summer of Youth" (1958), "Kyivan" (1958), "Roman and Francesca" (1960).
For more than 120 days he sang for the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident (1986-1987). A little later, this affected his health. He was diagnosed with a tumour in his lung and had to have his lung removed.
He toured abroad with concerts. He sang many Ukrainian songs, folk and modern, on records. However, his solo album was released only after independence on a CD.
The duet of Oleksandr Taranets and Petro Retvitskyi, who met as students, was popular on the stage. The duo performed for 27 years and presented the audience with the songs "A Boat is Sailing", "The Moon in the Sky", "When Two People Part", "Snow on Green Leaves", "How the Nightingale Sings" and others.
He died suddenly on 27 February 1998 in Vienna, where he was on business. He was buried in Kyiv at the Baikove cemetery.
In memory
2002 - A documentary film dedicated to the life and work of the singer: "And on that rifle..." (Ukrtelefilm, written and directed by Nelya Danylenko, cinematographer Oleksandr Skudar)
A memorial evening dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Oleksandr Taranets' birth in the Ukrainian House Palace in Kyiv. Kyiv, 29 March 2001, with the participation of masters of literature and art. Written and directed by Mykola Rudakov.
