Leonid Skirko Ukr. Леонід Миколайович Скірко (27 April 1939 – 8 June 2012) was a Canadian bass-baritone opera singer of Ukrainian origin. Biography and Career He was born in Shcherbynivka near Lozova, Ukraine to Marta (ne Havrysh), and to Mykola Skirko. The family fled both German and Russian occupation by crossing Ukraine to the relative safety of German Refugee camps. From 1945 to 1949, the Skirkos waited in a German Displaced persons camp in Augsburg for the opportunity to immigrate to another country. From 1949 to 1955 the family lived in San Paolo, Brazil. Leonid's passion for music was stirred up by attending Orthodox liturgy with his beloved babushka (grandmother), and singing in church choirs from the age of 9. Leonid was 15 when he arrived in Canada in 1955 with this family. Early period From the age of 17 on, he took singing lessons and coaching from Maestro Hryhorij Shwedchenko, the internationally famous tenor of the Kiev Opera in the Ukraine, and later, from Professor Kazymyr Oleshkevych, a former conductor in the Kiev Opera. From the years of 1955 to 1969 Leonid took up his high school and university studies, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University in 1964. In his spare time, he had the rich experiences of singing opera with the McMaster Operatic Society under the direction of Lee Heppner and later, the Hamilton Opera. Leonid won several Kiwanis Music Festival Awards, and the W.J. Pickard Limited Scholarship. In 1962 he was invited as a soloist in many concerts in the Hamilton area of Ontario. For the McMaster University Operatic Society, he sang the role of Kezal, the marriage broker, in The Bartered Bride, Lucas in The Student Prince, Escamillo in Carmen, as well that of Mephistopheles in the opera Faust. Earlier he sang in Down in the Valley. In 1965, he performed excerpts from the part of Don Alfonso's role in Così fan tutte. He sang with the Canadian Opera Chorus from 1964 to 1969. Leonid was a member of the Opera Quartet of Hamilton. With the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and on television, Leonid performed Il maestro di cappella in two concerts. He sang the bass part in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, and with the Hamilton Opera, played Colline in La bohème, Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Gianni Schicchi in the opera of the same name. The Hamilton Spectator