A bass singer and soloist of the Moscow State Academic Chamber Musical Theatre under B. A. Pokrovsky.
Alexey Mochalov was born in 1956 in Penza. In 1983 he graduated from the Vocal Faculty of the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, and in 1988 he completed postgraduate studies there in the class of Professor G. I. Tits.
Since 1980 he has been a leading soloist of the Moscow State Academic Chamber Musical Theatre under the artistic direction of B. A. Pokrovsky.
His repertoire includes leading roles in productions such as:
- Don Giovanni and Figaro in Mozart’s operas of the same name;
- Colas in Mozart’s «Bastien und Bastienne»;
- Sarastro in Mozart’s «Die Zauberflöte» («The Magic Flute»);
- Seneca in Monteverdi’s «L’incoronazione di Poppea» («The Coronation of Poppea»);
- Giulio Cesare and Hymen in Handel’s operas of the same name;
- Blansac in Rossini’s «La scala di seta» («The Silken Ladder»);
- Falstaff in Nicolai’s «Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor» («The Merry Wives of Windsor»);
- Cherevik in Mussorgsky’s «Sorochintsy Fair»;
- the Doctor and the Barber in Shostakovich’s «The Nose»;
- Nick Shadow in Stravinsky’s «The Rake’s Progress»;
- Proust in Schnittke’s «Life with an Idiot»;
- Petruchio in Shebalin’s «The Taming of the Shrew», among many others.
He took part in the world premiere of Schnittke’s «Life with an Idiot» at the Vienna Kammeroper (Austria) and in a concert performance of Verdi’s «Nabucco» at the Opéra National de Lyon (France).
He has appeared with leading Russian and international orchestras under conductors such as Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Marcello Arena, Vladimir Spivakov, Krzysztof Penderecki, Valery Polyansky, Mark Gorenstein, Evgeny Kolobov, Constantine Orbelian, Alexander Rudin, and others.
He has toured extensively in many countries of Europe, South‑East Asia, and North and Latin America.
As a guest soloist with the «Musical Theatre Enterprise» he starred in the production «MOZARTime, or Don Giovanni’s Fantasies», which was successfully presented at international festivals including Nikolai Petrov’s «Musical Kremlin», «New Year at the Moscow Conservatory», «Alyabyev Autumn» in Siberian cities, and at the opening of the Russian Drama Theatre in Tallinn.
He is an Associate Professor at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music and a teacher at the Academic Music College of the Moscow Conservatory; his students include laureates of international competitions.
He has given masterclasses in Brazil and Japan and maintains an active concert career.
Among his most notable appearances are:
- the Charity Concert of the World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland);
- the Yuri Bashmet International Music Festival in Tours (France);
- the 10th Jubilee Festival of Vladimir Spivakov in Colmar (France), dedicated to Fyodor Chaliapin;
- the 2nd «Vladimir Spivakov Invites...» Moscow Music Festival;
- a concert within the international project «Russian Muses to the World» at the Palace of Nations (UN) in Geneva;
- the «Palaces of St Petersburg» and «Spring in Russia» international music festivals;
- a gala concert marking the 1100th anniversary of Pskov (2003);
- a Rotary Club charity concert in aid of victims of the Beslan tragedy (2004);
- the «Europalia‑2005» Russian Arts Festival in Belgium, among many others.
On 10 November 1997 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York to high critical acclaim: «Alexey Mochalov is a singer with superb vocal resources and unique artistry» (The New York Times), «a bass with a rich, resonant timbre and wonderful cantilena» (Oxford magazine, UK).
In December 1997 his solo CD «Vocal Cycles by Dmitri Shostakovich» was awarded the «Diapason d’Or» by the leading French recording journals Le Monde de la Musique and Diapason.
Selected recordings on CD include:
- Shostakovich, «Vocal Cycles» (DML Classics, Japan);
- Shostakovich, «Anti‑Formalist Rayok» with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi (BMG Classics);
- Rimsky‑Korsakov, «Mozart and Salieri» (role of Salieri; TRI‑M Classics, Japan);
- «Pushkin’s Poetry in Russian Romances» with pianist Maria Barankina (DML Classics, Japan);
- «The Best Scenes from the Repertoire of the Chamber Musical Theatre» (TRI‑M, Japan);
- Alexandr Rosenblatt, vocal‑symphonic tableaux «Yaroslav the Wise» (role of Yaroslav; Russkiy Sezon label).
