1943–2005
Raisa Kyrychenko
Singer, “guardian of Ukrainian song”
She worked at the car factory in Kremenchuk and first sang on stage with the factory choir. Later Raisa Kyrychenko was called the “guardian of Ukrainian song”: the whole country knew her voice, and the ensemble Churaivna in Poltava was her idea. Hero of Ukraine.
Key accomplishments
- Soloist of the Cherkasy Folk Choir (1968–1983)
- Initiated the creation of the ensemble Churaivna at the Poltava Philharmonic
- Shevchenko Prize (1986) and the title Hero of Ukraine (2003)
- The autobiographical book I Am Your Cossack Woman, Ukraine (2003)
From a factory choir to the big stage
Raisa Korzh was born in 1943 in the village of Koreshchyna in the Poltava region. At school in the neighboring village of Zemlianky she was the choir’s soloist. Then she worked at the Kremenchuk car factory. She sang at a district amateur arts show, and after that she was taken on as a singer in the factory’s folk choir.
The voice of the Cherkasy choir
In 1962 Raisa joined the ensemble Veselka at the Poltava Philharmonic, then sang with the ensemble Lonok in Zhytomyr. For fifteen years, from 1968 to 1983, she was a soloist of the Cherkasy Folk Choir. Later she returned to the Poltava Philharmonic, where the ensemble Churaivna was created on her initiative. Kyrychenko earned her diploma as a choral conductor when she was already famous, in 1989, and later taught singing herself at the Poltava music college.
“Quiet Water” and “Two Colors”
She sang folk songs such as “Quiet Water” and “Oh, I Am Pretty”, and songs by modern composers: Anatolii Pashkevych’s “The White Cottage” and “Mother’s Cherry Tree”, and Oleksandr Bilash’s “Two Colors” and “The Sycamore and Its Mate” to lyrics by Dmytro Pavlychko. She toured Canada, the United States, Australia, Algeria, Tunisia and other countries. She won the Shevchenko Prize in 1986 and was named a Hero of Ukraine in 2003. Raisa Kyrychenko died in Kyiv in 2005 and was buried in her native village.
Why it matters today
Her unique voice and heartfelt singing won her the love of the whole nation, which is why she is called the “guardian of Ukrainian song”. In 2005 Poltava launched a song festival in her name, Song Wings of Churaivna, and a memorial plaque to her was put up on a building in Poltava.
