Outstanding Russian baritone opera singer Dmitri Hvorostovsky was born October 16, 1962, in a Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. A tall man with a striking head of prematurely silver hair, Hvorostovsky has achieved international acclaim as an opera performer as well as a concert artist. He was cast in People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people. His high, medium-weight voice has the typical liquid timbre of Russian baritones. The love for the vocal art Dmitri Hvorostovsky inherited from his father. A chemical engineer by profession, Alexander Stepanovich assembled a huge collection of records of stars of world opera, he sang beautifully and played the piano. The house has been always filled with sounds of good classical music. From his childhood idols for Dmitry were favorite baritone Ettore Bastianini, Tito Gobbi, Fyodor Chaliapin, Maria Callas. He loved listening to Neapolitan songs performed by Caruso, Tito Schipa and Mario Lanza, recording by Nezhdanova, PG Lisitsian, IK Arkhipova and other outstanding vocalists. Dmitri Hvorostovsky singing talent manifested itself early. Nature has endowed him with a voice that is unique in its capabilities and flexibility. From an early age he sang arias, Russian romances and songs.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky is recognized not only as an outstanding opera singer, but also as a master of chamber cantatas and oratorios. In the chamber genre – romance of Russian and foreign composers (Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninov, Rubinstein, M. Glinka, H. Purcell, Ravel, Brahms, G. Duparc, etc.), baroque arias of Western composers of XVI-XVII centuries, Russian folk songs.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky performed a lot and with great success in major concert halls in London, New York, Moscow, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, Paris, Vienna. His solo performances were held in Seoul, Oslo, Istanbul, Jerusalem, Japan, Australia, Latin America and Canada. The singer participated in the festival “Stars of the White Nights” in St. Petersburg.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky has been acting with orchestras: the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, etc. He works with leading conductors of our time, including Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Michael Tilson Thomas, Zubin Mehta, Jimmy Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Evgeny Kolobov, Yuri Temirkanov, Fedoseyev.
In 1992, Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s album “Dark Eyes”, consisting of Russian folk songs and romances (conductor Nikolai Kalinin, Orchestra of Folk Instruments named after Osipov), has been recognized as one of the most successful in Europe and the U.S.
Dmitri Hvorostovsky – Soviet, Russian, British opera singer (baritone). People’s Artist of Russia (1995). Laureate of the State Prize of the RSFSR Glinka (1991).
His first wife – Svetlana, a former ballet dancer. With her Dmitry met in 1986 and married in 1989. In marriage, two children were born – twins Daniel and Alexander (1996). He and his wife had been together for fifteen years, and divorced in 2001. Second wife – Italian singer Florence. In 2003, the couple had a son Max, in 2007 – the daughter Nina.
