The Russian bass Ildar Abdrazakov has been called "one of the most exciting Russian singers to emerge on the international scene..." by Opera News.
Abdrazakov is Russian by nationality, but not by ethnicity: he is three-quarters Bashkirian (an ethnic group in southern Russia with its own language and political subdivision) and one-quarter Tatar. He was born in Ufa, then the capital of the Republic of Bashkortostan (or Bashkiria) in the Soviet Union, on September 26, 1976. His father was a theater director, his mother an artist, and Abdrazakov followed their choices of career,...