Igor Borko

Ukrainian singer, born 11 July 1961. After his army service, he tried to get accepted at the conservatory, but got very discouraging assessments. He sang in choirs, first a classical, than a folk music choir, where he was also a soloist. In 1986, eight years after his first attempt, he retried at the conservatory – and this time, he was accepted into the class of Kostjantyn Ognjevyj, who became, in Borko's own words, a second father for him. He studied with Ognjevyj for an unusually long time, until 1998.

In 1996, he went to an audition at the Kiev National Opera, and was rejected. He sang in various ensembles, folk and classical. At a concert of one of those ensembles in Paris, he was heard by the director of the Odessa opera, who hired him, and he made his opera debut as late as 2000, at 39 years old! His debut role was Edgardo.

In May 2001, he made his debut in Kiev, again as Edgardo. He was to stay at that theater for the rest of his career. Abroad, he sang as a guest in places like Boston, Baltimore, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Bucarest, Cluj or Prague.
Reference 1, Reference 2

I would like to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the recording.