Miroshnichenko was born in a working-class family in Radyanskoe, a small village in the Vovchank region near Kharkiv. Prior to the Russian Revolution her mother, Susanna, used to sing for Count Gendrikov’s theater; her father, Semen, was a mechanic and a driver. Semen was a member of tank crew during World War II and was killed during a combat. Because of World War II, Miroshnichenko did not finish her primary school education, and in 1943 she became a student of a vocational school in Kharkiv where she started to sing in a choir. While at school she took an active part in amateur theatre. During an amateur singing show in Moscow in 1951, she was noticed by a professor of the Kiev Conservatory, who invited her to study at the conservatory under Professor M. Donec-Tessair. Because of her poor progress in non-musical subjects she failed, but was later re-admitted. She finished at the Kiev Conservatory in 1957 and made her debut in the Kiev Opera Theater, as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's opera La traviata. In 1961 Miroshnichenko worked in Milan in La Scala under the direction of Elvira de Hidalgo. Miroshnichenko's voice was unique in its timbre and vocal range. She was called "the singer everyone must see" on account of her vocal technique and her talent for dramatic acting. She was a lead singer of the Kiev Opera Theater from 1957 to 1998. Miroshnichenko took part in many international and national competitions, acted in musical films, recorded discs, and gave performances in tours across the United States, Canada and Western Europe. In 1980, Miroshnichenko became a teacher at the Kiev Conservatory, and 1990 she became Professor of Vocal Studies there. Many of her students became well-known opera singers in Ukraine and worldwide. Miroshnichenko lived in Kiev, and was involved with charities and teaching, founding the International Charitable Organizations that helped establish the Small Opera Theater in Kiev.
Personal life
Miroshnichenko had two sons, Igor Shkolniy and Oleg Miroshnichenko, and three grandchildren, Evgeniya Shkolna, Anton Miroshnichenko and Vyacheslav Shkolniy.
