Following war-time evacuation to the small town of Ustjuzhnu from 1942 to 1945, Obraztsova returned to her home city of Leningrad. Here, between 1948 and 1954, she sang gipsy romances and popular songs with a children’s chorus led by Maria Fedorovna Zarinskaya, a major influence. Obraztsova’s family then relocated in 1954 to Taganrog, where she studied singing with Anna Timofeevna Kulikova at that town’s Tchaikovsky Music School and was heard by M.A. Mankovskaja, upon whose recommendation she was accepted by the Rostov Music Academy. After a year there she moved in 1958 to the preparatory section of the Leningrad Conservatory before being accepted for study at the Conservatory itself.

In 1962 Obraztsova won two gold medals: at the World Youth Fes...