• People's Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan
• Prize-winner at the All-Union Mikhail Glinka Competition (1991)
• Prize-winner at the Unisa Transnet International Vocalists’
Competition in Pretoria (1994, Grand Prix)
• Prize-winner at
the International Fyodor Chaliapin Vocalists’ Competition in Kazan
(1994, 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at
the International Maria Callas Competition in Athens
(1995, Grand Prix)
• Prize-winner at the International Sergei
Rachmaninoff Competition (1998, 1st prize)
Askar Abdrazakov was born in Ufa, a city rich in cultural
traditions, where Fyodor Chaliapin and Rudolf Nureyev began their careers and
where Vladimir Spivakov was born. After graduating from the Ufa State
Conservatoire (class of Professor M.G. Murtazina) he undertook
a postgraduate study at the Moscow State Conservatoire (class of
the legendary Irina Arkhipova). While still a student, the singer
started winning international competitions at which he took first prizes and
grand prix exclusively.
In 1994 he was invited to perform Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at the Great
Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire under the baton of Vladimir
Fedoseyev, and he also performed in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden
Fevronia at the Bregenz Festival (Austria). The same year, he
made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, appearing as Don
Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Konchak (Prince
Igor).
He went on to sign contracts with the world’s greatest opera houses,
among them the Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre,
the Metropolitan Opera, the Washington Opera, the Teatro alla
Scala, Barcelona’s Teatre del Liceu, NHK Hall in Tokyo, the Teatro
Colón in Buenos Aires, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet,
the Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, the Staatsoper
Berlin, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Megaron Hall in Athens,
Parma’s Teatro Regio, Florence’s Teatro Comunale and the Teatro Regio and
Teatro Massimo in Turin.
Askar Abdrazakov has worked with such conductors as Pierre Boulez, Mstislav
Rostropovich, Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev, Michel Plasson, Plácido Domingo,
Marcello Viotti, Bruno Bartoletti, Lorin Maazel, Bertrand de Billy, Oleg
Caetani, Maurizio Arena, Daniele Gatti, Alexander Anisimov, Vladimir Fedoseyev,
Jean- Claude Casadesus, Daniel Oren, Mark Ermler, Jesús López-Cobos, Nello
Santi, Mark Elder and Ralf Weikert to name but a few.
The singer has a vast repertoire including the roles of Boris
(Boris Godunov), Attila (Attila), Filippo II
(Don Carlo), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Banco
(Macbeth), Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Don Quichotte
(Don Quichotte), Méphistophélès (Faust), Mefistofele
(Mefistofele), Kochubei (Mazepa) and Don Giovanni and
Leporello (Don Giovanni).