Renata Babak (February 4, 1934 in

Kharkiv, Ukraine Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

– December 31, 2003 in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

) was a Ukrainian

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

who defected to

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from the Bolshoi Opera in 1973. "Soviet Opera Singer is Defector"
''Galveston Daily News'' (June 18, 1975): 9. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. It is owned by The ...

Babak died in December 2003 from

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...

at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

References

1934 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Ukrainian women opera singers Ukrainian mezzo-sopranos Deaths from pancreatic cancer in Maryland Musicians from Kharkiv Musicians from Silver Spring, Maryland Soviet emigrants to the United States {{Ukraine-singer-stub