Russian-born American opera and concert singer (soprano) (born December 30, 1891 in Kiev, Russian Empire - died May 14, 1965 in Santa Ana, Orange County, California, USA)

The daughter of opera singers, Nina Pavlovna Koshetz was born in Kiev but grew up in Moscow where her father, tenor Pavlo Poray-Koshetz (1863-1904), sang at the Bolshoi Theater between 1893 and 1904. She herself attended the Moscow State Conservatory between 1908 and 1913, studying voice with Umberto Masetti and piano with Konstantin Igumnov.

In 1913, Koshetz debuted as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's opera "Eugene Onegin" at Sergei Zimin's Moscow Private Opera. She performed at this venue until 1917. During the same years, she also sang at the Imperial Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, where her first role was Donna Anna in Mozart's "Don Giovanni".

In 1920 Koshetz joined the Ukrainian Republic Capella choir founded by her uncle, conductor Alexander Koshetz, on a tour that took them to Western Europe and the United States. She remained in the United States, performing both in operas and in recitals of Russian and Ukrainian songs. Her first engagement was in Detroit, where she offered a large concert program. She then performed with conductor Leopold Stokowski in Philadelphia and at operas in New York, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires. On December 30, 1921, Koshetz sang the role of Fata Morgana in the world premiere of Prokofiev's opera "The Love for Three Oranges" at the Chicago Civic Opera, directed by the composer.

After playing minor roles in two silent movies, 'Casanova" (1927) and "Secrets of the Orient" (1928), Koshetz permanently moved to Hollywood around 1934. She had several more smaller roles in almost a dozen movies, up to "Hot Blood" (1956). In 1937, Koshetz married fellow Russian singer Gabriel Leonoff and began more on more to focus on teaching voice. Her students included Ann Blyth, Claudette Colbert, and Marlene Dietrich. For a while in the early 1940s, Koshetz and her husband operated their own Russian restaurant, but it went bankrupt in 1942.

Koshetz was the mother of operatic soprano and movie actress Marina Koshetz.