Zoia Haidai

Zoia Mykhailivna Gaidai (April 21, 1965) was a Soviet and Ukrainian opera soprano. She was an artist of wide creativity, with a bright vocal range and talent who staged more than 50 musicals of the works of Ukrainian and Russian composers, as well as works of the classical repertoire of Western European composers. She kept close contact with other composers of her time, such as Mykola Lysenko, Boris Lyatoshynsky, Viktor Kosenko, and Levko Revutsky.

Biography Gaidai was born in Tambov. In 1927, Gaidai graduated from the Tambov Music College (N. V. Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama), where she studied under the guidance of Olena Muravyova. From 1928 to 1955, she was soloist at the Kiev Opera and Ballet Theater, and from 1930 to 1934 at the Kharkov theater. During World War II she was evacuated to Ufa along with her husband, singer-tenor Nikolai Platonov (Nicholas Platonovich Slutsky), and other artists of the Kiev Opera.

From 1947 to 1965, she taught at the Kiev Conservatory, having become a professor of this institution in 1963, a position that she held until her death. In 1955, Gaidai left the scene. She died on April 21, 1965 in Kyiv.