Singer (Baritone) and actor, Alexey Kokhanov was born in Moscow, Russia and graduated with honors from the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music in Choir Conducting. In 2001, he entered the department of musical theatre at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts. In 2003, he started studying voice at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg in Austria with Kjellaud Tesaker. He graduated with honors with a Master of Art in Lied and Oratorio in 2010. Also in 2010, he received the special prize “Premio Oratorio” at the international sacred music competition, Musica Sacra, in Rome. In 2011, he attended an exchange program (Erasmus) at the Conservatoire Nationale Supèrieure Musique de Paris. In July 2013, he received the second prize in the Humor Competition at the Salzburg Summer Academy.

I am often inspired by nature. Integrity and truth, which I observe in nature, I see reflected in great pieces of art. This truth of emotions and feelings, I would like to represent on the stage. I admire the personality of a composer. I am interested in the work process of creation. It appears to me as a kind of real magic, which also takes place during performance. A real artist takes the creator’s role, taking part in this process. That’s what inspires me in the singing art. When I start working on a new piece, I like the idea of seeing it as an encrypted message, transposed by a composer in the score. Searching for the piece’s grain, it’s main idea, is very important for me. It is a key to understanding the song. A really necessary part of the research for me is to answer the question: “Why do I need to sing this song at this moment and in this place?”.

Alexey has participated several times in the contemporary opera festival Taschenoper in Salzburg, where he sang the first performances of operas by R. Febel, F. Tuscano, S. Rosani, and B. Muntendorf. Alexey is an artist of the theater arts laboratory of Dmitry Krymov at the Russian Academy of Theater Arts in Moscow and of E. Lavrenchuk at the Polish Theatre in Moscow. He has performed as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company in UK in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Shakespeare Festival and Edinburgh Festival in 2012 and as an artist of the Polish Theatre in Moscow in “Maria Stuart” by J. Slovacky. In September 2012, Alexey joined the Operastudio Vlaanderen in Gent, Belgium and completed a one-year post-graduate intensive in Opera and continues performing all over Europe with concerts in Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, and France.

I use to work as a singer and actor. For me, these are two different kinds of energies, two different physical beings. The directions I would like to work in are the combination of these performing techniques.

Alexey’s Bang-up! Projects:

Qu4rtet, La Bohème, Così fan tutte

Favorite Song:

Chiribim by The Barry Sisters

Favorite Artist:

Klaus Nomi

Favorite Opera:

Carmen, Don Giovanni, Wozzeck

What inspires Alexey:

Little children, whales, the sea, forest, mountains