Music, stage & screen

Everyone in “Music, stage & screen”. Search by name or narrow down by era and region.

  • Photograph of Mykola Lysenko

    1842–1912

    Mykola Lysenko

    Father of Ukrainian classical music

    Composer, ethnographer and conductor, founder of Ukrainian classical music. Author of the operas Natalka Poltavka and Taras Bulba and of “Prayer for Ukraine”, which became the country’s spiritual anthem.

    Composer / musician

  • Photograph of Mariia Zankovetska, 1892

    1854–1934

    Mariia Zankovetska

    Actress, star of Ukrainian theater

    The most celebrated actress of Ukrainian theater of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who for 40 years played in the troupes of Marko Kropyvnytskyi, Mykhailo Starytskyi and Mykola Sadovskyi. She created more than 30 roles, including Natalka in Natalka Poltavka and Kharytyna in The Hired Girl.

    Actor

    New
  • Photograph of Solomiia Krushelnytska by Mario Nunes Vais, c. 1905–1910

    1872–1952

    Solomiia Krushelnytska

    Opera singer (soprano)

    A Ukrainian opera singer (soprano) who performed on leading stages in Europe and South America, including La Scala in Milan. In 1904, at Giacomo Puccini’s invitation, she brilliantly sang the role of Butterfly after his opera’s failed premiere.

    Singer

  • Photograph of Mykola Leontovych

    1877–1921

    Mykola Leontovych

    Composer of “Shchedryk”

    Composer and choir conductor who arranged “Shchedryk”. The world knows the melody as “Carol of the Bells”, and millions of people hear it every year.

    Composer / musician

  • Photograph of Vira Kholodna, 1910s

    1893–1919

    Vira Kholodna

    Film actress, “queen of the screen”

    Born in Poltava, she was one of the first great stars of silent cinema in the Russian Empire and was called the “queen of the screen.” In under five years she appeared in dozens of films, including works by the directors Yevgeny Bauer and Pyotr Chardynin. She died in Odesa in 1919, aged 25.

    Actor

    New
  • Serge Lifar at a rehearsal of the Netherlands Ballet (Nederlands Ballet), photo, 1961

    1905–1986

    Serge Lifar

    Paris Opera dancer and choreographer

    A Kyiv-born ballet dancer and choreographer who led the Paris Opera Ballet for more than a quarter of a century. He created more than 200 ballets and became one of the founders of the neoclassical trend in choreography.

    Dancer / choreographer

  • Photograph of Sergei Parajanov

    1924–1990

    Sergei Parajanov

    Visionary film director

    Film director whose Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors revealed the poetry of the Ukrainian Carpathians to the world. After he defended persecuted artists, the authorities imprisoned him on fabricated charges, but his films became classics of world cinema.

    Filmmaker, Artist

  • Photograph of Kvitka Cisyk, 1989

    1953–1998

    Kvitka Cisyk

    American singer of Ukrainian descent

    An American singer of Ukrainian descent, born in New York to a family of emigrants from Lviv. Known as a voice of American advertising and film soundtracks, and in Ukraine for her two albums of Ukrainian songs.

    Singer