Featured Artists

Taras Victor Leschishin • Baritone

"Leschishin’s powerful voice was perfectly suited to capture both the Russian flavor of the language and the music." –Boston Musical Intelligencer

Taras Leschishin, a native of Ohio, attended Baldwin-Wallace College with scholarships to pursue voice performance.  After graduation with high honors, Taras performed with the Cleveland Opera Company as well as soloist for several local choral groups and bass soloist at Old Stone Church in downtown Cleveland. After one year, Taras continued his studies with scholarships at New England Conservatory in Boston, MA.  There he studied with Helen Hodam, renowned voice teacher from Oberlin Conservatory, and he also worked with John Moriarty well-known in the New England Opera world. After receiving a Masters degree in Voice Performance, Mr. Leschishin began performing around the Boston area, including solos with the Boston Pops, Boston Cecilia, Chorus of the Arts. Coro Allegro and several other local music organizations.  Taras has been a member of the Handel Haydn Society, the Cantata Singers, Coro Allegro and the Seraphim Singers.  He has coached with Martin Katz, Phyllis Curtin and Stephen Lord.  Taras' musical experience has brought him to conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic in Bali, Indonesia as well as be the soloist for the Geddy Wedding in Indonesia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic.  Mr. Leschishin has traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East as soloist with many choral groups.  Taras has been a guest lecturer and professor of music for the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine.  Taras lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts where he maintains his own home voice studio and is celebrating nearly 30 years of teaching at Bridgewater State University.

Alexander Prokhorov • Bass

Alexander Prokhorov is legendary for his candlelit evening of Russian and Gypsy romances. He is a connoisseur and collector of well-known, as well as rare and forgotten Russian and Gypsy romances, that he performs with his own improvised piano accompaniment. His deep bass baritone immediately captivates and brings forth the melodic beauty of the romances, along with their drama and excitement, to the audiences.

Mr. Prokhorov grew up in a family with rich cultural traditions. Among his relatives are writer Alexey Tolstoy (great-grandfather), poet of silver century, and notorious interpreter of Shakespeare, Mikhail Lozinski (great-grandfather), composer Dmitri Tolstoy, and many others. Literary, musical, and theatrical hobbies were a part of Alexander's childhood years and led him to pursue his artistic career. A graduate of Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory Musical College with a degree in piano performance, Mr. Prokhorov also received a Master’s Degree in Opera performance at Longy School of Music and Boston Opera Institute. His operatic roles include Don Pasquale from Don Pasquale, Raimondo from Lucia Di Lammermoor, Colline from La Boheme, Escamilio from Carmen, Prince Gremin from Eugene Onegin, Ferrando from Il Trovatorre, and Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Mr. Prokhorov's concert appearances range from Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall of the New England Conservatory, and the Emerson/Cutler Majestic Theater to Moscow and St. Petersburg's Philharmonic Halls. The Romances remain his favorite genre and his concert tours always include the annual Evening of Russian and Gypsy Romances at Tolstoy's Museum in Moscow, which Mr. Prokhorov dedicates to his famous great grandfather, Aleksey Tolstoy. Mr. Prokhorov is also the founder and artistic director of the award-winning Commonwealth Lyric Theater, where Mr. Prokhorov has staged critically acclaimed productions of operas featuring world-class singers from the Bolshoi, La Scala, and Metropolitan opera companies.