To mark a significant milestone—the 250th anniversary of the United States—a creative initiative has been announced, directed at the Russian-American community and everyone interested in the history of the Russian diaspora. The Congress of Russian Americans (CRA), the research group Russophone Los Angeles Research Collective, and the magazine Russian Life invite participants to create an original mini-book under the general title “250 Years of America and Its Russian-American Heritage”.
First-grade students at our school, together with their teacher, took part in this creative project to produce mini-books about Russian heritage in the United States. They dedicated their work to Aida Vedishcheva.
She became widely known in 1967 for her performance of the “Song About Bears” in the film Kidnapping, Caucasian Style, or Shurik’s New Adventures. Songs performed by Vedishcheva later appeared in various film projects.
Among them are compositions from the comedies Three Plus Two (“Everyone Says: Love Is Poison”), The Diamond Arm (“Help Me”), White Piano, as well as from the film Red, Blue, Green (“We’re Going Back to the Old Days”), the children’s movie Oh, That Nastya! (“Forest Deer”), and the musical film The Cook and the Singer (“First Spring”). In addition, she performed songs for the animated films The Little Boat and the original version of Umka (“She-Bear’s Lullaby”). In 1968, she received a diploma at the Sopot Festival for the song “Geese, Geese.”
In 1980, Aida Vedishcheva emigrated to the United States with her mother and son. Here, the singer performed under the pseudonym Amazing Aida, primarily singing American repertoire—songs from popular Broadway musicals and Hollywood films, as well as works by Michel Legrand, Russian and Gypsy romances, and Jewish songs (mainly from the repertoire of the Barry Sisters). Later, she began writing her own songs, including “Ballad of Chernobyl,” “Life Is Music,” “Christmas,” “America,” and “I Will Return, Moscow!” After the 2001 terrorist attacks, she wrote the musical Masterpiece and the Singing Freedom, dedicating it to the Statue of Liberty. The musical was performed on Broadway in 2007.