Yakov Strizhak

Yakov Strizhak was born in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan and studied at the St Petersburg State Conservatory graduating in 2010. He won first prize at both the Rachmaninov International Music Competition (2008) and the “St Petersburg Spring” Festival Competition (2010).

He has performed under conductors including Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Frederic Chaslin, Sergei Stadler and Andrey Petrenko. In 2007 he took part in first performances of Shostakovich’s The Tale of the Priest and His Workman Balda in Norway and Ireland, and the following year he sang in the premiere of Smelkov’s opera The Brothers Karamazov conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Gergiev Philharmonic Festival in Rotterdam. In July 2021 he made his debut at the Mariinsky Theatre as Nilakantha in Delibes’ Lakmé.

He has also performed Zuniga Carmen under Mariss Jansons (Rimsky-Korsakov Theatre of Opera and Ballet), and as a soloist at the St Petersburg ‘Zazerkalie’ Theatre he has sung Don Alfonso Così fan tutte, Don Basilio, Le Commendatore Don Giovanni, Mustafà L’italiana in Algeri, Geronimo Il matrimonio segreto, Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr Miracle and Dapertutto Les Contes d’Hoffmann, King René Iolanthe, Prince Gremin Eugene Onegin, Vasily Sobakin The Tsar’s Bride, Sparafucile Rigoletto, Colline La Bohème, Rocco Fidelio and Angelotti Tosca.

Outside Russia he has sung Zaretsky Eugene Onegin, Barnabas Das Kaisers neue Kleider, Barker in Gershwin’s Blue Monday and Pluto Orpheus (Komische Oper Berlin) and Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Mozart Requiem (New Israeli Opera). In 2018 he made his US debut at the Bard Summerscape Festival performing Malyuta Skuratov in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and the Old Servant in Rubenstein’s The Demon.

Gallery

King René in Iolanta
Sparafucile in Rigoletto
Zuniga in Carmen
Sobakin in The Tsar's Bride
Nilakantha in Lakmé

Artist Videos

Gremin (Eugene Onegin)
King René (Iolanta)
Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte)
Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte)
Sobakin (The Tsar's Bride)

Opera Repertoire

COMPOSER OPERA ROLE
Bartók Duke Bluebeard's Castle Bluebeard
Bizet Carmen Zuniga
Delibes Lakmé Nilakantha
Gershwin Blue Monday Sam
Monteverdi Orpheus Pluto
Mozart Così fan tutte Don Alfonso
Mozart Così fan tutte Don Alphonso
Mozart Don Giovanni Commendatore
Mozart Le Nozze di Figaro Don Bartolo
Mozart Die Zauberflöte Sarastro
Offenbach Les Contes d'Hoffman Lindorf, Coppélius, Miracle, Dappertutto
Prokofiev War and Peace Old Waiter/Bolkonsky/Gabriel/Shcherbaty
Puccini La Bohème Colline
Puccini Madama Butterfly Commissioner/Bonze
Puccini Tosca Angelotti
Rimsky-Korsakov Tsar's Bride Sobakin
Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia Don Basilio
Rossini Italiana in Algeri Mustafa
Shchedrin Dead Souls Governor/Bearded Man
Shostakovich The Tale of the Priest and His Workman Bob Pop
Smelkov The Brothers Karamazov Old Man
Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin Prince Gremin
Tchaikovsky Iolanta King René
Tchaikovsky Maid of Orleans Archbishop
Vachek Des Kaisers neue Kleider Barnabas
Verdi Nabucco Zaccaria
Verdi Rigoletto Sparafucile
Verdi La Traviata Marquis d'Obini