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THE WORLD-FAMOUS ORIGINAL
Don Cossack Chorus Serge Jaroff

Mykola Chaly (Микола Чалый)

(December 07, 1903, Poltava – August 13, 1980, Maplewood, Essex County, N.J.)
Bass with a strong, expressive voice

1955, movie
1956, movie
1969, WDR
1971, movie
1972, TV show
?

In 1919, at the age of sixteen, Chaly fought with the White Guards against the Bolshevik Red Army.

During World War II, the Nazis took his disabled son and used him for medical experiments. He survived this period, horribly disfigured, but received lifelong medical care and a pension from the new German government after World War II.

Chaly emigrated to the United States after 1945.

Shortly afterwards he played the title role in an American feature film, a little later he became a member of the "General-Platoff-Don Cossack Chorus" and stayed until the early 1950s. He changed to Jaroff's choir when it began to give concerts in Europe again. During these concert tours he visited his disabled son several times.

People from left (year 1955):
Pavel Myhalik, Stanislavsky's son, Florent Stanislavsky, Mikola Chaly, Stanislavsky's wife.

Excerpt from a prepared letter from the concert manager S. Hurok for the eleventh America Tour 1940-1941:

..... The choir is divided into eight groups of four. Director Serge Jaroff and a managing director are excluded. The Hotel and Luggage Adjutant has five medium-sized suitcases for each troop: four for clothing and one for cooking utensils. The Cossack singers are addicted to their local recipes, so the hotel adjutant has to secure the cooking privilege by reserving 24 rooms on one floor. Mykola Chaly was responsible for the suitcase with cooking utensils, as he loved to eat borscht (see cartoon on the main page.)

During this time he entertained his fellow singers in the evening by telling anecdotes, with his gestures and his language of expression he slipped into the respective roles, as a boy, an old man, a diplomat, an old witch or a young lady. While listening, many of his comrades often had fits of laughter.

Excerpt from the "The Ukrainian Weekly", August, 24 1980

Obituary

The Rev. Protodeacon Mykola Chaly

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. - The Rev. Protodeacon Mykola Chaly, deacon of Holy Ascension, Ukrainian Orthodox Church and former soloist of the Kharkov Opera, died Wednesday, August 13, of a heart attack at the age of 77.

Born and educated in Ukraine, he studied music and sang in numerous choirs as a leading bass. In the United States, he was a member and soloist with the famous Don Cossacks Chorus, travelling for 20 years throughout the free world. He also performed as soloist at many local Ukrainian concerts.

In І963, he was ordained a deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church by the late Metropolitan Nikanor of West Germany and served at the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in New York City. For the last five years, he was deacon and member of the parish choir in Maplewood.

Funeral services were conducted on Sunday evening at Holy Ascension Church with responses sung by the combined choirs of Holy Ascension and Holy Trinity of Irvington, N.J., directed by Leonid Charchenko.

On Monday morning, the Divine Liturgy and funeral services were celebrated at Holy Ascension with the responses sung by the Don Cossacks choir, directed by George Margitich and Mr. Kulick. Interment was at St. Andrew's Cemetery in South Bound Brook, N.J.

Surviving are his wife Olga, daughter Margaret Zammito, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Siegfried Tiefenbeck


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