Fedir Zharko was one of the most renowned singers of dumy (sung epic poems) in Ukraine. He was born in 1914 in village of Mykhailivka, Cherkasy province. From 1931 to 1936 Zharko studied at the Cherkasy Pedagogical Institute, completing his studies in Mathematics and Physics. Here he also became acquainted with the bandurist Vusatyj from the city of Chyhyryn, who inspired him to learn to play the bandura. From 1936 to 1940 up until World War II he worked as a village school teacher in Kiev Oblast (province).
Initially he learned to play the bandura from Fedir Hlushko. After World War II he spent six years incarcerated in Irkutsk and Kolyma for being a village elder during the German occupation of Ukraine.
In 1945, after singing at a concert he was invited to join the Dumka chorus in Kiev. In 1948 he became a member of the Kiev Bandurist Capella where he spent some 25 years performing with the group until his retirement in 1974.
Repertoire
From 1958 he recorded a large number of dumy and historic songs for the Melodia company, and published a number of collections of songs and dumy.(1967, 1969)
His repertoire included the following dumy (ten authentic and four contemporary dumy):
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