Grigory Fyodorovich Ponomarenko

Grigory Fyodorovich Ponomarenko was a Soviet Russian composer and bayan (button accordion) player. People's Artist of the USSR (1990). He was born in the village of Morovsk (Chernihiv Oblast, Ukraine) into a peasant family. At the age of five he began studying the bayan, and by the age of twelve he was writing music for productions of the local drama club.

From 1941 to 1947 Ponomarenko served as a musician in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Border Troops, with which he went through the entire war. It was during this period that he wrote his first songs. In 1952 Ponomarenko became the principal solo instrumentalist of the State Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments named after N. Osipov in Moscow. In the same year he moved to Kuybyshev, where he led the bayan group in the Volga Folk Choir, and later became head of its musical department.

Later Ponomarenko led the folk choir of the Volgograd Tractor Plant, and in 1973 he moved to Krasnodar. His extensive compositional legacy includes operettas, sacred music, concertos for bayan, works for various instruments, music for stage productions and films, as well as numerous songs — in total around 970 works. His songs were performed by many well-known singers, including Klavdiya Shulzhenko, Lyudmila Zykina, Iosif Kobzon and others. Grigory Fyodorovich Ponomarenko tragically died in a car accident on January 7, 1996, and was buried in Krasnodar.