Alexander Ilyich Mozzhukhin

About museum

Alexander Ilyich Mozzhukhin (1878–1952) was a Russian opera singer (bass-cantante), the elder brother of silent-film actor Ivan Mozzhukhin. He was born into a peasant family. He graduated from the ecclesiastical school and theological seminary in Penza. In 1900 he entered the Moscow Musical-Dramatic Philharmonic School, where he studied violin. In 1903 he appeared in a charity performance on the stage of Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre in the role of Ivan Susanin — M. Glinka's "A Life for the Tsar." In 1904 he performed in Penza on the stage of the Summer Theatre.  

He enrolled in the vocal department of the Moscow Conservatory; however, without completing his studies, from 1905 he began performing in private opera theatres. He performed in Kazan, in Sartov, in Samara, in Tiflis, in 1911–1914 in Petersburg (Theatre of Musical Drama), and in 1922–1923 in Moscow (S. Zimin's Opera). He gave a number of concerts abroad together with his accompanist-wife K. Karini. From 1926 he lived abroad, in emigration, where he continued his musical activity, performing both in opera productions and in concerts.