PAVLO BALAKIN (bass) is one of the most outstanding opera soloists of his generation in Estonia today. Pavlo’s first music degree is from the jazz saxophone class of the Donetsk Music Academy in Ukraine (2006). Thereafter the Ukrainian born bass studied singing at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with Prof Mati Palm. In addition, he has worked regularly with a number of great coaches, among them Richard Barker, Roberta Ferrari, Kristina Vavolo, Kristin Okerlund and Jeffrey Goldberg.
Between 2002-2008 Pavlo sang in the chorus of the Ukrainian National Opera and between 2008-2013 in the chorus of the Estonian National Opera. Besides, he sang many bass solo roles until being officially hired as a soloist by the Estonian National Opera in 2013. He has worked as a guest artist also in Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Opera di Firenze, Teatra la Fenice, Den Jyske Opera in Denmark, Lviv National Opera Theatre and Opera på Skäret in Sweden.
Pavlo’s repertoire includes smaller and bigger soloist roles, such as the title role in Verdi’s Attila, Dottore Grenvil (Verdi’s La Traviata), Hermann (Wagner’s Tannhäuser), Ramfis (Verdi’s Aida), Dulcamara (Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore), Grand Inquisitor and the Monk (Verdi’s Don Carlo), Malyuta Skuratov (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar's Bride) (Méphistophélès (Gounod's Faust), Enrico (Anna Bolena), Daland (The Flying Dutchman), Ptolemy (Händel's Julius Caesar), Monterone (Rigoletto), Count Horn (Un ballo in maschera), Surin (Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades), Boriss and Pimen (Mussorgsky's Boriss Godunov) and Salieri (Rimsky-Korsakov's Mozart and Salieri), among others.
Pavlo Balakin is also highly valued as an oratorio and chamber music soloist, having performed bass parts in J. S. Bach's St John Passion and St Matthew's Passion, Beethoven's Mass in C Major, Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Mendelssohn's Elias, Strauss' Deutsche Motette, Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death and Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti by Shostakovich.
Pavlo Balakin has worked with many renowned conductors, among them Daniel Oren, Riccardo Frizza, Omer Meir Wellber, Fabrizio Maria Carminati, Eri Klas, Andres Mustonen, Vello Pähn, Arvo Volmer; and with numerous highly acclaimed directors, such as Dmitry Bertman, Daniel Slater, Daniele Abbado, Calixto Bieito, Georg Rootering, Pamela Recinella, Vilppu Kiljunen, Andrejs Zagars and Tobias Kratzer to name a few.
In 2013, Pavlo Balakin won the Annual Estonian Theatre Award Crystal Shoe for his mature interpretation of Méphistophélès in Gounod's Faust.