Nina Matviienko

Nina Mytrofanivna Matviienko (; 10 October 1947 – 8 October 2023) was a Ukrainian singer, People's Artist of Ukraine. Life and career Matviienko was born on 10 October 1947 in village of Nedilyshche, Yemilchyne Raion, Zhytomyr Oblast at the time in the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union (today Ukraine). She was the fifth of eleven siblings, her mother was Antonina Ilkivna and father, Mytrofan Ustynovych. She began at a local residential school, then worked as a copyist and then a crane-operator's assistant. She completed her studies in Ukrainian philology at the Kyiv University in 1975. She had previously entered the vocal studio of the Ukrainian State Folk Choir named after Hryhory Veriovka in 1968, before becoming a soloist. She married Petro Honchar and had three children: Ivan, who later joined a monastery, Andriy and Antonina; she later divorced him. In 1988 she received the Shevchenko National Prize, a Ukrainian State prize named after Taras Shevchenko, and also acted in Yuri Ilyenko's Ukraine war drama film Solomennye Kolokola. Her repertoire includes numerous Ukrainian folk songs. Nina is the first performer of works by the composers Yevhen Stankovych, Myroslav Skoryk, Iryna Kyrylina, Hanna Havrylets and many others. She has performed on television in numerous films and on radio.