Fedir Zharko

Who is Fedir Zharko?

Fedir Avramovych Zharko, Merited Artist of Ukraine.

Fedir Zharko was one of the most renown singers of dumy in Ukraine. He was born in 1914 in village of Mykhailivka, Cherkasy province. From 1931-36 Zharko studied at the Cherkasy Pedagogical Institute, completing his studies in Mathematics and Physics. Here he also became acquainted with the bandurist Vusatyj from the city of Chyhyryn, who inspired him to learn to play the bandura. From 1936-1940 up until World War II he worked as a village school teacher in Kiev Oblast.

Initially he learned to play the bandura from Fedir Hlushko. After World War II he spent six years incarcerated in Irkutsk and Kolyma for being a village elder during the German occupation of Ukraine.

In 1945, after singing at a concert he was invited to join the Dumka chorus in Kiev. In 1948 he became a member of the Kiev Bandurist Capella where he spent some 25 years performing with the group until his retirement in 1974.