Vasyl Slipak

Opera career

Born in 1974 in Lviv Oblast, Slipak liked to sing since his childhood. At the age of 11, Slipak joined the Lviv children's choir group Dudarik. After that, he continued his education at the Lviv Conservatory. During his education, Slipak participated in a vocal contest in the French city of Clermont, winning the contest. In 1996, Slipak received an invitation to perform at Opéra Bastille in Paris. In 1997 Slipak graduated from the Lysenko Music Academy in Lviv and then was invited to the Paris Opera where he became an opera singer. By 2011, he was at the top of his field, winning the prize for best male performer at the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary, for his rendering of the Toreador Song from the opera Carmen.

Repertoire

Death

Following the outbreak of the pro-Russian insurgency in Donbass, Slipak returned to Ukraine and participated in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. In 2015, Slipak joined the fights against pro-Russian insurgents as a member of the 7th Battalion of the Volunteer Ukrainian Corps of the Right Sector. He took the military call sign Mif, a reference to his favorite aria of Mephistopheles from the opera Faust. After the war in Donbass, Slipak planned to continue his career in Paris.

On 29 June 2016, at approximately 6 a.m., Slipak was killed by a sniper shot near Luhanske.

President Petro Poroshenko has awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Ukrainian opera signer, volunteer fighter, participant of the Revolution of Dignity Vasyl Slipak, who was killed in the Donbas in summer 2016. Slipak was awarded posthumously.