Michael Minsky

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Michael Minsky (b. 12 August 1918, Baghaewo(Tatarstan), d. 9 October 1988, Zwolle (the Netherlands) was counted among the great interpreters of Russian and Ukrainian songs and was conductor of the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff.

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[edit] The Russian Years

Early in his childhood Michael Minsky showed an interest in music and culture. He mastered the bayan (accordion) and showed his talents as a singer while quite young. In 1935, Minsky was admitted to the Rabfak College (workers faculty) at University of Kazan where he studied geology. In 1941, he joined the college choir and was later selected by Maria Vladimirova Vladimirovna to study at the Moskow Conservatory. She predicted a glittering opera career for him. But her plans for Minsky were thwarted by the Soviet Union's entry into the war on 22 June 1941.

[edit] World War II

Michael Minsky was drafted into the army on 2 August 1942 and trained for four-months in Saratov. He was soon prisoner and confined in several POW camps near the front lines for 33 months. In 1943, he was put to work as a forced labourer near the Hungarian border. His overseer turned out to be the brother-inlaw of a tenor from the Platoff Don Cossack Choir. He told Minsky about the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff.

[edit] Refugee camps

After the war, from 1945 to 1948, Michael Minsky moved between a number of refugee camps. Cultural life blossomed spectacularly in these camps, and 3 November 1945, Michael Minsky joined the newly formed Trembita choir in Bad Herschfield, led by Professor Tsependa. This choir performed in many other camps, including Ingolstadt in 1946 and Bad Kissingen.Michael later moved to culturally rich Karlsfeld. After its closure the refugees were spread over the Berchtesgaden and Mittenwold camps.On 15 November 1948 Michael Minsky joined the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus in Bad Kissingen. That same year the choir was invited to make a tour to the U.S.A.

[edit] The United States

Minsky left for New-York on 5 May 1949. That same year, he and the Bandurist Choir were received at the White House and gave a range of concerts in venues including the Mansonic Auditorium on 2 October 1949. During his career Michael Minsky sang in virtually every major concert hall in the United States playing Carnegie Hall for the first time in 1953. He was granted US citizenship of 21 February 1953, changed his name from Spirin to Minsky. In 1954 he made his debut in Philadelphia in Aida.

[edit] Bandurists

In 1958 five singers from the-plus a Quintet-went on tour. In the autumn of that same year, Michael Minsky and the Bandurist Choir began a tour through the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands, where he performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on 18 November. In 1959 while studying in Rome he was granted an audition by the Pope. The period from early 1948 to 1984 would see him regularly return to the choir as a soloist.

[edit] Cossack Choirs

In the early 1960s Minsky joined the Schwarzmeer Cossack Choir- in the meantime he worked with "Rodina"in Hamburg (1962-1964 and 1968). He studied on yet another scholarship in New- Orleans where he sang Pagliacci. In early 1963 het performed in "La Scala"in Philadelphia. From 1 September 1963 to 31 August 1968 Michael Minsky collaborated with the Gelsenkirchen Opera. Although under contract with the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff and its conductor from 1948 onwards, it was only in autumn 1964 that he actually joined the Don Cossack Choir in Luzern. He would remain with Jaroff up to spring 1979. On 22 April 1966 Minsky performed once again at the Mansonic Auditorium in Detroit. At that time Minsky spent most of his time in Europe.

[edit] Australia

In 1972 Michael Minsky toured Australia and produced a series of records with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. In 1978, he settled permanently in Zwolle in the east of the Netherlands.

[edit] The Netherlands

On 7 January 1980 Minsky set up a mixed amateur choir in Zwolle, within a few months it made its concert and television debuts. This success brought Minsky an invitation to become conductor of the Ural Cossacks amateur choir in The Hague. From 1984-1988 he was conductor of the professional Ural Cossack Choir in Germany. And he started in the autumns 1984 an amateur Cossack Choir in Rijswijk, but in his autobiography he concludes that this was not the thing either. When Otto Hofner (Jaroff's friend and manager) asked him to re-start the Original Don Cossack Choir again, with Nicolai Gedda as soloist-as Jaroff had wished- Minsky did not hesitate. But, although he did conducted a tour of major Germany halls, when Nicolai Gedda refused to perform on a daily basis, Minsky became ill and Hofner called it a day.

[edit] Millennium

Michael Minsky, sensing his death was near, completely devoted himself to the organization of the Dutch celebration of the thousand-year anniversary of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was one of the initiators of this anniversary celebration held on 30 September 1988, attended by among others, Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Michael Minsky died nine days later on 9 Oktober 1988, and was buried in Zwolle on 14 Oktober.

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