Hrebinka (Ukrainian: Гребінка, Russian: Гребенка) is a city in Poltava Oblast, Ukraine. Population is 11,662 (2001).

Yevhen Pavlovych Hrebinka (Ukrainian: Євген Павлович Гребінка, 2 February 1812, Ubizhyshche, Poltava gubernia - 15 December 1848, Saint Petersburg) was a Ukrainian romantic writer and poet. He wrote in both the Ukrainian and Russian languages.

His works first started being published in 1831. In 1834 he published "Little Russian Fables" in Moscow which, because of its vivid and pure language, wit, laconic style, and attention to ethnographic detail, ranks among the best collections of fables in Ukrainian literature. Many of his lyrical poems, such as A Ukrainian Melody (1839) became folk songs. Hrebinka is recognized as a leading representative of the so-called "Ukrainian school" of Russian literature. Many of his Russian language works include Ukrainian themes, such as Stories of a Pyriatynian (1837), the historical poems Getman Svirgovskii (1839) and Bogdan (1843), the novelette The Nizhen Colonel Zolotarenko (1842), and the novel Chaikovskii (1843). In 1843 he wrote a poem Dark Eyes that would later become a famous Russian song with the same name.

Joseph Kosma (22 October 1905 – 7 August 1969) was a Hungarian-French composer, of

Kosma was born József Kozma in Budapest, where his parents taught stenography and typing. He had a brother, Akos. A maternal relative was the photographer László Moholy-Nagy, and another relative was the conductor Georg Solti. He started to play the piano at age 5, and later took piano lessons. At the age of 11, he wrote his first opera, Christmas in the Trenches. After completing his education at the Gymnasium Franz-Josef, he attended the Academy of Music in Budapest, where he studied with Leo Weiner. He also studied with Béla Bartók at the Liszt Academy, receiving diplomas in composition and conducting. He won a grant to study in Berlin in 1928, where he met Lilli Apel, another musician, whom he later married. Kosma also met and studied with Hanns Eisler in Berlin. He also became acquainted with Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel.

Kosma and his wife emigrated to Paris in 1933. Eventually, he met Jacques Prévert, who introduced him to Jean Renoir. During World War II and the Occupation of France, Kosma was placed under house arrest in the Alpes-Maritimes region, and was banned from composition. However, Prévert managed to arrange for Kosma to contribute music for films, with other composers fronting for him. Under this arrangement he wrote the music for Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), made under the occupation, but released after the liberation. Among his other credits are the scores to La Grande Illusion (1937), La Bête Humaine (English: The Human Beast), The Rules of the Game (1939) and Le Testament du docteur Cordelier (The Doctor's Horrible Experiment; telefilm, 1959). He was also known for writing the standard classical-jazz piece "Les feuilles mortes" ("Autumn Leaves"), with French lyrics by Jacques Prévert, and later English lyrics by Johnny Mercer, which was derived from music in Marcel Carné's film Les Portes de la Nuit (1946).

Tchavolo Schmitt (born 1954 in Paris) is a noted guitarist in gypsy jazz. He had some success with others in the 1970s, but then settled in Strasbourg and left the professional circuit for a time. He started putting out albums under his own name in 2000. He also played Miraldo in the Tony Gatlif film Swing.

Tchavolo Schmitt was introduced to the guitar at the age of 6 by his mother; his father played the violin. He developed, with time, a virtuosity in the manouche style and his renown rapidly exceeded the limits of Alsace, his ancestral region. He became influential among his peers, in particular at Porte de Montreuil or Chope des Puces in Saint-Ouen, legendary homes of manouche swing. In 1979, he became a professional musician, and in that year, after leaving Paris to return to his Alsatian roots, he joined the band "Hot Club da Sinti", which included the violinist Wedeli Köhler, the guitarist Schmeling Lehmann, and the bass player Jani Lehmann. A single LP recording (now a collector's item) was released in 1981. While his career paused during the 1980s, in 1993 he joined the band "Gypsy Reunion" (with, among others, Dorado Schmitt, Patrick Saussois and Gino Reinhardt). In 2000, he released the first album under his own name, with the friendly support and the active participation of Romane, titled Alors?... Voilà!. This album was followed in 2001 by Miri Familia. In 2002, he released the original soundtrack to Swing, a movie directed by Tony Gatlif where Tchavolo Schmitt played the role of Miraldo, a guitar teacher. In 2004, Angelo Debarre joined him to produce a tribute record to Django Reinhardt called Mémoires, and in 2005 he released a solo album called Loutcha.