In 1982, he completed his studies at Kaluga Music College with the qualification of conductor of folk instruments orchestra. In 1989, he graduated from the Gnesin Music Pedagogical Institute (today the Russian Academy of Music, Artur Eyzen’s class). While still a student, he sang lead roles for the Institute Opera Studio as follows: title role (Don Pasquale), Bartolo and title role (Le Nozze di Figaro), The Head (May Night), Colline (La Boheme), Gremin (Eugene Onegin).
From 1990-93, he worked in Switzerland where he gave regular performances on the concert platform.
From 1993-99, he was soloist with Moscow’s Novaya opera Company where he sang about 20 lead roles.
He joined the Bolshoi Theatre in 1999.
Repertoire
His repertoire for the Bolshoi included the following, among other, roles:
Varlaam (Boris Godunov)
The Miller (Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka)
Zaccaria (Nabucco)
Director of the сasino (Prokofiev’s The Gambler)
Prince de Bouillon (Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur)
Salieri (Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri)
Rene (Iolanta)
Gremin (Eugene Onegin)
Sobakin (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride)
Sarastro (Die Zauberfloete)
Timur (Turandot)
Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and of the Maiden Fevronia)
First Apprentice (Wozzeck)
Tours
He has sung Pistola (Falstaff) with the New Israel Opera Company, Dolokhov (War and Peace) at the Spoletto Festival, Gremin (Eugene Onegin) at the Stadttheater Klangenfurt (Austria). At the Opera Bastille, Paris, he has taken part in the following productions: War and Peace, Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, Rigoletto and Atilla. In 2003, he made his La Scala debut, singing the title role in Rossini’s Moise et Pharaon. In the same year, at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, he sang Zaccaria (Nabucco). In 2004, at La Scala, he sang Lindorf, Coppelius, Dapertutto and Dr. Miracle in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Zaccaria at Latvian National Opera. In 2005-07,at La Scala, he sang Chub in Tchaikovsky’s The Slippers, and Old Convict in The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
He has an oratorio concert repertoire. Among his performances in this genre are Verdi’s Requiem at the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and at the Novaya opera Theatre, Rossini’s Petite Messe solennelle at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
He has CD recordings of Russian Folk Songs and War and Peace (Dolokhov, Italy, 1999).