Honoured Artist of Russia tenor Leonid Zakhozhaev was born in Krasnodar. His development to the position of a leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg went through a number of stages. Having graduated from St Petersburg State Academy of Theatre, Music and Cinema as a dramatic actor, he worked in theatre, created roles in the cinema and on television and had some success as a rock and pop singer in 80-s underground culture. In 1989 he entered the St Petersburg State Conservatoire. Since 1995 he is a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre.
He was as a leading tenor of the Mariinsky Theatre, guided by Valery Gergiev, that Leonid Zakhozhaev was first introduced to the stages of great opera theatres and concert halls throughout the world including the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Germany´s Baden-Baden Festival (where he had a success as Siegfried), Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real, Madrid, the Chatelet, Paris, Italy´s Ravenna Festival, the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Mikkeli Music Festival in Finland, the Rotterdam Gergiev Festival and Amsterdam´s Concertgebouw in Holland, the Kennedy Center, Washington, in Japan, Israel, Argentina, Chile, Luxemburg, Hong-Kong, Australia, Sweden and Brazil.
His repertoire includes Lohengrin (Lohengrin), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Faust (Faust), Hermann (The Queen of Spades), Vaudemont (Iolanta), Macduff (Macbeth), Sergey (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), the title role of the Berlioz´ Benvenuto Cellini, Siegfried (Siegfried and Götterdämmerung), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Alexei (The Gambler), Erik (Der Fliegende Holländer), Froh (Das Rheingold), Tristan (Tristan und Isolde), the tenor solo in Mahler´s Das Lied von der Erde etc.