Koshetz, Nina (Pavlovna)
Koshetz, Nina (Pavlovna)
Koshetz, Nina (Pavlovna), Russian-American soprano; b. Kiev, Dec. 30, 1894; d. Santa Ana, Calif., May 14, 1965. Her father, Paul Koshetz, was a tenor. She began piano study when she was 4 and gave her first recital at 9, then enrolled at the Moscow Cons, at 11, studying piano with Igumnov and Safonov and voice with Enzo Masetti; later studied with Félia Litvinne. She toured Russia with Rachmaninoff, of whose songs she was a congenial interpreter. She also toured with Koussevitzky and his orch. She made her operatic debut as Donna Anna at the Imperial Opera in St. Petersburg (1913), and toured the U.S. with the Ukrainian National Chorus, under the conductorship of her brother (1920), where she settled. She sang the role of Fata Morgana in the first performance of Prokofiev’s The Love for 3 Oranges (Chicago, Dec. 30, 1921). She subsequently devoted herself mainly to concert appearances, and still later taught voice.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire