Alexey Markov

The baritone Alexey Markov, who was born in 1977 in Vyborg on the Karelian Isthmus in Russia, initially studied guitar and trumpet before deciding to take up a vocal career at the age of 22, for which he took private instruction. Two years later he was accepted by the Academy of the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, soon going on to victories in many vocal competitions. In 2005 he won Elena Obraztsova’s Young Opera Singers’ Competition and, in 2007, the Moniuszko Vocal Competition in Warsaw. Since 2008 Markov has been a member of the Mariinsky Theater ensemble, where he has been seen onstage in such roles as Don Carlo in Verdi’s La forza del destino, Amfortas in Wagner’s Parsifal, and Chorèbe in Berlioz’s Les Troyens. Markov made his Metropolitan Opera debut in New York in Prokofiev’s War and Peace in 2007 and has been a regular guest there ever since, singing Tomsky in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades, Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Count Luna in Verdi’s Il trovatore, and Valentin in Gounod’s Faust. Markov has appeared at Zurich Opera as Renato in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and has interpreted Donizetti roles including Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and Nottingham in Roberto Devereux. In 2011 Markov made his Salzburg Festival debut as Robert in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta; in 2014 came his debuts at the Edinburgh Festival and San Francisco Opera. He has also appeared several times at the Munich and Dresden Staatsoper companies. In addition to his operatic career, Markov is also a devoted lieder singer. On CD/DVD he has recorded Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta (alongside Anna Netrebko) and Mah-ler’s Eighth Symphony with Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra.

February 2016