Andrey Zhilikhovsky

The Moldovan baritone Andrey Zhilikhovsky initially studied choral conducting at the Ștefan Neaga School of Music in Chișinău, before pursuing singing studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory.

In 2007 he was a finalist in the St Petersburg International Singing Competition. In 2009 he won third prize at the Elena Obraztsova International Singing Competition for Young Opera Singers and in 2012 he won third prize in the Maria Bieşu International Singing Competition.

Andrey Zhilikhovsky was a soloist at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where he sang roles such as Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Schaunard (La bohème), Robert (Iolanta), Silvano (Un ballo in maschera), Dancaïre (Carmen) and the Prince in Boris Asafyev’s children’s opera Cinderella. In 2011 he made his debut at the Latvian National Opera in Riga as Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia).

In 2012 he joined the Young Artists Programme at the Bolshoi Theatre, where he has since performed roles including the title role of Eugene Onegin, Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Dr Falke (Die Fledermaus), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Marcello (La bohème) and the Venetian Merchant in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko.

Andrey Zhilikhovsky’s international engagements have taken him to many famous opera houses. Highlights have included Belcore and Andrey Bolkonsky (War and Peace) at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Robert at the Paris Opéra, Don Ferdinand (Betrothal in a Monastery) under Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera, Malatesta, Rossini’s Figaro and Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Glyndebourne Festival, Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Washington National Opera, where he has also appeared as Guglielmo, Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) at the Komische Oper Berlin and the Edinburgh Festival, Yeletsky (The Queen of Spades) at the Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Andrey Bolkonsky at the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest and Marcello at the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Met and at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.

In the 2024/25 season Andrey Zhilikhovsky sang Posa (Don Carlo) at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, Don Pedro in a concert performance of Donizetti’s Maria Padilla in Seville and Rossini’s Figaro at the Met, and subsequently made his Salzburg Festival debut as Achilla in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Giulio Cesare.

Engagements in the 2025/26 season have included Lionel in Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orléans at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Marcello at the Vienna State Opera and Count Almaviva at Covent Garden.

Andrey Zhilikhovsky is also a devotee of Russian song repertory and has given song recitals with the pianist Iain Burnside at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall.