The Russian Bass Ildar Abdrazakov was born in Ufa, Russian Federation, in 1976, where he studied at the Institute for Arts under Professor Murtazina.

Mr Abdrazakov has won a number of prizes including First Prize at the television competition Moscow Grand Prix named after Irina Arkhipova, First Prize in the Glinka International Competition in 1997, and First Prize at the Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition in 1998. In October 2000 he won the Maria Callas International Television Competition in Parma.

In 2001 Mr Abdrazakov made his debut at Teatro alla Scala Milan in La Sonnambula and appeared that same year as Oroveso in Norma for the Verdi Festival in Parma, in Trovatore at the Opera Theatre in Rome and in Rossini's Stabat Mater at the Opera Festival in Pesaro and in Don Carlo in Tokyo. Mr Abdrazakov has since returned to La Scala in Macbeth conducted by Riccardo Muti, Samson e Dalila with Placido Domingo, Magometto II in Lassedio di Corinto, Selim in Il Turco in Italia and Iphigenie en Aulide with Muti, and in 2003/04 Ildar Abdrazakov' established himself worldwide with performances of the title role of Mose et Faraon with Maestro Muti at La Scala (which is also available now on DVD/CD) and performed the reopening concert of La Scala Theatre conducted by Muti in December 04.

He has since made his debut at Metropolitan Opera, Rome Opera, San Francisco Opera and Washington Opera as Mustapha in Italiana in Algerie, Escamillo in Carmen at the Vienna Staatsoper and Assur in Semiramide in Madrid. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Escamillo in the 2004 and as Alidoro in Cenerentola in 2005, Semiramide in Barcelona Opera in 2005, sang Figaro at Los Angeles Opera earlier this year and returned as Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermor to La Scala.

In concert he appeared in performances of Verdi's Requiem with Valery Gergiev in Baden-Baden, in Milan with Riccardo Chailly, in Siena with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, and in Rome and Bologna conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti. He performed Cherubini's Messe with Maesto Muti in Florence, the Verdi Requiem with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, Damnation de Faust with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Valeri Gergiev, and earlier this year concerts with the Bayerische Rundfunk in Munich with Muti , the Verdi Requiem with Placido Domingo in Munich and made his London Prom debut with the BBC Philharmonic and Maestro Nosedda in a performance of the Michelangelo verses by Shostakovich.

2006/07 engagements are performances of Mefistopheles in Faust - including a live broadcast - at the Metropolitan this season, the title role of Oberto in Bilbao and Semiramide in Berlin. In concert he will appear with the Rotterdam Philharmonic (Boito's Mefistopheles), the Orchestra Filharmonica of La Scala (Shostakovich Michelangelo Verses), the Orchestre National de France with Muti (Cherubini Messa), the Verdi Requiem with Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and Chaily and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zinman and will perform Rossini's Stabat Mater at the proms with Pappano and the Orchestra di Santa Caecilia.

In 2007/08 Mr Abdrazakov has, amongst others, engagements of Don Giovani at Washington Opera and Walter in Luisa Miller at the Bastille Opera.

Mr Abdrazakov has made a recording for Decca of unpublished arias by Rossini conducted by Riccardo Chailly and live recording of Cherubini's Mass at the Bayerische Rundfunk conducted by Riccardo Muti for EMI Classics and recorded The Michelangelo Verses, a Shostakovich Song Cycle, in a dual purpose recording with the BBC and Chandos. A DVD/CD of a live performance of Mose e Faraon from La Scala has also been released.


April 07