Ruzhena Sikora
| Ruzhena Sikora | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Ружена Владимировна Сикора August 20, 1919 Novorossiysk, Soviet Russia |
| Died | December 23, 2006 (aged 87) Moscow, Russian Federation |
| Occupation | singer pedagogue |
| Years active | 1940s – 1980s |
| Spouse(s) | Viktor Goryshnik Nikolai Taranenko |
| Awards | People's Artist of Russia (1993) |
Ruzhena Vladimirovna Sikora (Руже′на Владими′ровна Сико′ра, August 20, 1918, in Novorossiysk, Soviet Russia – December 23, 2006, in Moscow, Russian Federation) was a Soviet traditional pop and jazz performer of Czech and Polish origins, highly popular in the late 1940s and 1950s. Sikora is credited with being the first Soviet artist to have started performing international jazz, swing and pop standards in their respective original languages.
Ruzhena Sikora was born in Novorossiysk. Her father Vladimir Vladimirovich Sikora was a second-generation Russian Czech, son of a wine-maker Vladimir Sikora, Sr. who in the mid-19th century left his country for Tiflis, Georgia, then settled in Abrau-Dyurso, Krasnodar Krai. Vladimir Sikora, Jr., an accountant in a local cement factory, was a part-time opera singer, well known among the Novorossiysk connoisseurs. Ruzhena's mother, Veronika Adamovna Sikora, came from Poland.
Encouraged by her father, Ruzhena began singing as a three-year-old. At the age of five she started studying the piano and four years later was able to accompany her father on a professional level, first at home, then with her own solo program at the local Pioneers' Palace and the City's Theatre.
In July 1936, Vladimir Sikora died of heart attack. To help support the family in the times when only state workers received provision cards, Ruzhena went to work at a local cement factory. In the evenings, she was playing the piano at the factory's cinema club and still managed to continue her musical education. Impressed by one of her public performances, the city authorities sent the 18-year-old to the Rostov-on-Don musical college, one of the best in the country, which she graduated in 1941, as a professional vocalist.
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