Iosif Kobzon

Born in the town of Chasiv Yar (Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, USSR). At the end of 1939 Iosif Kobzon's family moved to Lviv. During the Great Patriotic War they were evacuated to Uzbekistan, and in 1944 he returned to Kramatorsk (Ukraine). In 1956 Iosif Kobzon graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk Mining College. His first public performances took place on the college stage. From 1956 to 1959 he served in the army, after which he entered the vocal department of the Gnessin State Musical-Pedagogical Institute. From 1959 to 1962 Iosif Kobzon was a soloist of All-Union Radio, from 1963 to 1965 a soloist-vocalist of Goskontsert, and from 1965 to 1989 a soloist-vocalist of Moskontsert. He was a laureate of numerous competitions: in 1964 a laureate of the All-Russian Competition of Variety Artists, in 1984 a laureate of the USSR State Prize, and so on. From the early 1970s he performed in solo concerts. From 1984 he worked at the Gnessin Musical-Pedagogical Institute as artistic director of the vocal and variety department, where he taught variety (pop) singing (professor from 1993). He died in Moscow.