Anatoliy Solovianenko (sometime transliterated as Anatolii Solovyanenko)[1] (b.Donetsk, Ukraine September 25, 1932; d. 29 July 1999; Ukrainian: Анатолій Борисович Солов'яненко, Russian: Анатолий Борисович Соловьяненко) was an operatic tenor, People's Artist of the USSR (before 1978), People's Artist of Ukraine, and State Taras Shevchenko prize-winner.[2] He was born into a mining family and graduated from Donetsk Polytechnic Institute in 1954, having taken singing lessons at Olexander Korobeichenko from 1950. He began his career in Donetsk,[3] where there is now a monument in his memory.[4] He did 12 performances at the Metropolitan Opera in Kiev, then graduated from Kiev Conservatory in 1978. For 30 years he was soloist at the Taras Shevchenko National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kiev, and performed at Expo 67 in Montreal.[5] He performed as soloist for Alexandrov Ensemble during its UK tour 1988, singing Kalinka and others.[6] He recorded 18 LPs: arias, romances and songs.[7]
During the 1977-78 season, Solovianenko was a soloist with and concertized at the New York Metropolitan Opera.[3][8] Among various government officials who attended his funeral was President Leonid Kuchma,[1] and several months later, in December 1999, the Donetsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre was renamed in his honor by the Ukrainian Cabinet.[9] In 2001, a statue of the singer was installed at Kozin (within the Kyivska oblast), where he is buried.[10]
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