Boris Stepanov

• Prize-winner at the 2^nd Georg Ots International Music Festival-Contest (St Petersburg, 2018; 1^st prize)
• Prize-winner at the 37^th Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition (Jūrmala, 2018; International Press Jury Award)
• Recipient of the Onegin National Opera Award in the category “Debut” (2016)
• Prize-winner at the 10^th International Festival-Competition Three Centuries of Classical Romance (St Petersburg, 2012; 2^nd prize)

Boris Stepanov was born in 1986 in Leningrad. In 2005 he graduated from St Petersburg’s Glinka Choir College as a conductor of an academic choir, and in 2010 – from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory (conducting class of Valentin Nesterov; concurrently he took vocal lessons from Konstantin Pluzhnikov). In 2015 the artist completed an internship at Accademia Teatro alla Scala.

From 2005 to 2015 he was a soloist of the Smolny Cathedral Chamber Choir. Has participated in a performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St Petersburg Conservatory / Hermitage Theatre, 2006). In 2007 he sang the tenor part in Alexey Miroshnichenko’s ballet Wie der Alte Leiermann (“Like the Old Organ-grinder”) to the music of Leonid Desyatnikov (the artist’s debut at the Mariinsky Theatre) and the part of Ivan the Boyar in the Hamburg premiere of Johann Mattheson’s opera Boris Godunov, which was also staged that year at St Petersburg’s Mikhailovsky Theatre and the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow. Guest soloist of the St Petersburg Philharmonia and the Riga Philharmonic (since 2011). Since 2017 Boris Stepanov has been a guest soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, where he has appeared as Count Almaviva (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Ernesto (Don Pasquale) and the Italian Singer (Der Rosenkavalier). Has performed in Abkhazia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, France, the Czech Republic, Chile, Switzerland, Sweden and other countries.

From 2015 to 2022 the artist was a soloist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. On its stage he portrayed Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Chaplitsky and Chekalinsky (The Queen of Spades), Alméric (Iolanta), Tsar Berendey (The Snow Maiden), the Young Gypsy (Aleko), Yegorov (Prokofiev’s The Giant), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Don Curzio (Mozart. Le nozze di Figaro), Count Almaviva (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Alfredo Germont and Vicomte Gaston de Letorières (La traviata), Beppe (Pagliacci), the Hunter (Dvořák Rusalka), Leopold (La Juive), Edmondo (Puccini’s Manon Lescaut), Kudryash (The Storm based on Janáček’s opera Katya Kabanova), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) and Ernesto (Don Pasquale). Since January 2023 he has been a guest soloist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre.

Has performed at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw (Kudryash in Katya Kabanova), the Grand Théâtre de Genève (the Simpleton in Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov), the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse (Malcolm in Macbeth), the Teatro Municipal de Santiago – Ópera Nacional de Chile (Zinovy Borisovich in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Moscow’s Helikon Opera (Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia). In April 2023 in Singapore he sang the tenor part in Józef Kozłowski’s Requiem. In 2024 at the Moscow Concert Hall Zaryadye the artist appeared as Gayatri in the world premiere of Alexander Tchaikovsky’s opera Mercy.

Since February 2023 Boris Stepanov has been a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre.

Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Tsar Berendey (The Snow Maiden)
A District Constable (The Nose)
Gayatri (Alexander Tchaikovsky’s Mercy, concert performance)
Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)
Tamino (Die Zauberflöte)
Count Almaviva (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Lindoro (L’italiana in Algeri)
Ramiro (La Cenerentola)
Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore)
Ernesto (Don Pasquale)
Lord Arturo Talbot (I puritani, concert performance)
Ruodi (Guillaume Tell, Acts I and II, concert performance)
Iopas (Les Troyens)
Gerald (Lakmé)
Tom Rakewell (The Rake’s Progress, concert performance)
Role of an Evangelist in Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, tenor parts in Bach’s Johannes-Passion and Mass in B minor and in the ballet Wie der Alte Leiermann

He sang in the premieres of the Mariinsky Theatre’s productions of L’italiana in Algeri (2022), Don Pasquale (2022, revival of the 1980 production), Die Zauberflöte (2022), Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Lakmé (2023).

His repertoire also includes the title roles in Rameau’s Pygmalion, Lully’s Atys and Stravinsky’s Œdipus Rex, Fronin in Bortniansky’s Alcide, Count Vaudémont in Iolanta, Raymond in The Maid of Orleans, Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, the tenor parts in Purcell’s Te Deum and Jubilate, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat and cantatas, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Magnificat, Telemann’s and Vivaldi’s cantatas, Heinrich Schütz’s Historia der Auferstehung Jesu Christi, Handel’s Alexander’s Feast and Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem and masses, Rossini’s Messa di Gloria, Haydn’s Missa in angustiis (Nelson Mass) and Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Schubert’s Mass in G major, Schumann’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht and Paulus, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 in F minor, Britten’s War Requiem, Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, Penderecki’s Missa brevis and Te Deum, Schnittke’s Historia von D. Johann Fausten and Requiem; Schubert’s and Brahms’ vocal cycles.

In 2019, at the invitation of BIS Records, Boris Stepanov performed the roles of the Simpleton, Misail and a Boyar in the recording of Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano. The singer participated in the creation of the Village Stories album released in 2023, featuring works by Stravinsky, Janáček and Bartók. In 2024 Pentatone released a recording of Józef Kozłowski’s Requiem performed by Olga Peretyatko, Olesya Petrova, Boris Stepanov, Christoph Seidl and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.