Nina Koshetz
| Nina Koshetz | |
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Koshetz in The Chase, 1946
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| Born | December 30, 1891 |
| Died | May 12, 1965 (aged 73) |
Nina Koshetz (Russian: Нина Павловна Кошиц; née Poray-Koshetz (); 30 December 1891 – 14 May 1965) was a Russian-Ukrainian, later American opera soprano, recital singer and actress.
Nina Koshetz was born in Kiev, then moved to Moscow and became an opera singer. Her father, opera singer Pavel Koshetz (ru: Павел Алексеевич Кошиц; 1863 - 2 March 1904), committed suicide in 1904, when Nina was 12 years old. From 1908–13 she studied in Moscow State Conservatory with Konstantin Igumnov and Sergei Taneyev, among others.
Having received voice lessons in France from the retired dramatic soprano Felia Litvinne, she sang leading roles in opera and performed in principal opera houses across Russia and Europe. In the late 1910s she performed at the Petrograd Conservatory and was accompanied by then-unknown Vladimir Horowitz. She had initially resisted being accompanied by the unknown student, but afterward insisted only he could accompany her there; she subsequently programmed some of Horowitz's songs.
In 1920 Koshetz joined Ukrainian Republic Capella co-founded and led by her uncle Oleksandr Koshyts on their European Tour. After which she emigrated to the US and joined the Chicago Opera Association where she sang in the premiere of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1921).
Nina Koshetz later performed for the Russian Opera Company in New York City and on tour in South America. At the end of the 1920s she was active in France, where she appeared in the French premiere of Sadko. Known for her overly-extravagant life style, her vocal powers declined in the 1930s and in 1940 she retired to Hollywood where she made a living as a voice teacher and restaurateur (a venture that ended in bankruptcy in 1942). She appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood movies. She died in Santa Ana, California in 1965.
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