Oda Slobodskaya, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Oda Slobodskaya

Russian opera singer

Date of Birth: 28-Nov-1888

Place of Birth: Vilnius, Vilnius County, Lithuania

Date of Death: 29-Jul-1970

Profession: singer, music pedagogue

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Oda Slobodskaya (28 November 1888 - 30 July 1970) was a Russian born soprano who became a British citizen. Her biographer Maurice Leonard quotes Slobodskaya as having been born on 28 November 1888 in Vilno (now Vilnius) near the Polish border.
She won a scholarship for secondary education but, having completed her schooling, to her displeasure, found herself working with her parents in a secondhand clothes shop.
Knowing she had a good voice, in 1907 she applied for an audition at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
Having no classical repertoire she sang the simple songs she had learned as a chlld.
Despite this lack of sophistication, her vocal potential was immediately apparent.
The Director, Glazunov, and Natalya Iretskaya (the most important Russian singing tutor and herself a pupil of Pauline Viardot) accepted her and awarded her a scholarship for nine years' study.