Vasiliy Zinkevich Soviet and Ukrainian singer, actor. Date of Birth: 01.05.1945 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Vasily Zinkevich

Vasily Zinkevich was a Soviet and Ukrainian singer and actor. He was born on May 1, 1945, in Vaskovtsy village, Izyaslavsky district, Khmelnytsky region, Ukrainian SSR. He graduated from the Vyzhnytsk School of Decorative and Applied Arts and in 1968 became the first male soloist in the female VIA "Smerichka," where Nazariy Yaremchuk joined a year later under the direction of Levko Dutkovsky.

In 1971, Vasily Zinkevich gained nationwide fame by performing the song "Chervona Ruta" with Yaremchuk and Ivasyuk, which became the best song in the country. In the final of the next "Song-72," he sang "Vodohray." In 1973, the amateur group "Smerichka" was invited to the philharmonic. After exhausting tours in 1975, he left the professional stage but returned in 1977 as a soloist in the Volyn VIA "Svityaz" under the direction of Valery Gromtsev.

Since 1980, he served as the artistic director of the Volyn Philharmonic. The singer resides in Lutsk. His children, Vasily and Bogdan, continued their father's path in the music industry. Vasily Zinkevich was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine in 2009 for his outstanding personal merits to the Ukrainian state in the development of musical culture and his fruitful creative activity in enriching the national treasury of songs. He was also awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise V degree (2009) and the Order of Merit of all degrees (1999, 2005).

He was honored with the titles of Merited Artist of Ukraine (1980) and People's Artist of Ukraine (1985). In 2001, he was granted honorary citizenship of Lutsk. On May 24, 2002, in Kyiv, the International Center for Culture and Art opened the "Alley of Stars," where Zinkevich was presented with the Star of Ukraine.