Timchenko was born on December 12th, 1927 in
Chistjakove in the Donetsk area. Soon his family moved to Novocherkassk where he
passed his childhood.
When he was 15 years, Timchenko volunteered to the front, served with the Baltic fleet up
to the end of the war. No day passed without singing by the sailors including Nikolaj Timchenko.
After the war, he participated in concerts in naval amateur performances with Russian songs, and received positive reviews.
As a result, he became a soloist in a song and dancing ensemble of the Baltic fleet.
In 1949, that Baltic fleet ensemble sang in an holiday concert
in an open-air theatre in Moscow, where the famous Red Army marshal K. E. Voroshilov attended. He paid attention to
the young soloist, whose voice pleased the listeners by its brightness, softness
and beauty of timbre, and made
a big impression. Voroshilov advised Timchenko to study
singing professionally.
Thus in 1950, Timchenko joined the Moscow conservatory. His teachers were
two great tenor soloists of the Bolshoj, Ozerov and
Judin. While a student, he already went on tour nationally and abroad.
After successfully finishing the conservatory, he was accepted
to the Bolshoj in 1955.
In 1961, Timchenko – along with other talented young singers of the Soviet Union – was sent
to Italy for additional training in Milan with maestro Barra.
After returning from Italy, Timchenko was unhappy at the Bolshoj – the competition of Lemeshev and Kozlovskyj discouraged him. He left the theater
in 1968, and became a concert and radio tenor.
Timchenko sang, with equal
success, operatic arias, romances, and Russian national
songs. He generated particular excitement by his renderings of
war songs.
After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, he visited the area; the radiation caused him a fatal illness, of which he died on June
15th, 1989.
His stage repertory included: Levko, Duca, Triquet, Sinodal, Bajan, Lykov, Almaviva, Fjodor (Vojna i mir/War and peace),
Lenskij, Alfredo, ...
Reference 1
Reference 2