The bass Ilia Kazakov was born in Kazan in 1992. His recent and future engagements include his debuts at the Hamburg State Opera, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival and with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko.
He is a member of the Vienna State Opera, where he has appeared in roles including Ferrando (Il trovatore), Colline (La bohème), Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Varlaam (Boris Godunov), Doctor Grenvil (La traviata), Truffaldino (Ariadne auf Naxos), the King (Aida), Zuniga (Carmen), Pistola (Falstaff), Gualtiero (I puritani), Gaoler (Tosca), Sergeant (Manon Lescaut), Quinault (Adriana Lecouvreur) and Bossmin in the children’s opera Die Entführung ins Zauberreich with music by Mozart. In summer 2023 he also sang the role of Zuniga at the St Margarethen Opera Festival.
Ilia Kazakov studied choral conducting and singing. In 2019 he won the special prize at the international Galina Vishnevskaya Singing Competition.