Birth of Pavel Lisitsian (November 6, 1911)

Pavel (Poghos) Lisitsian was born on November 6, 1911, in Vladikavkaz (Northern Caucasus). His father was a mine worker, and he first worked in diamond drilling and then as a welder apprentice, hoping to follow in your father’s footsteps. He entered the world of music by singing in a church choir, and then he moved to Leningrad to study cello in 1930. 

His strong baritone voice turned him into the soloist of a local amateur group, and thus he entered the Leningrad Conservatory. He started his vocal career in the Leningrad Opera State Theatre and then in the Alexander Spendiarian Opera and Ballet Theatre of Yerevan, where he performed the leads for three years.  

Lisitsian was the soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow between 1940 and 1966, the year of his retirement, and performed in operas by Tchaikovsky, Verdi, Bizet, Spendiarian, Chukhajian, Prokofiev, and other authors. He earned the title of People’s Artist of the USSR in 1956 and between 1966 and 1973 taught at the Gomidas State Conservatory of Yerevan. 

He appeared in 1960 at the Metropolitan Opera of New York and at the Cosmopolitan Opera in San Francisco. 

He passed away in Moscow on July 6, 2004, at the age of 92. 

His three children, Karine, Ruzanna, and Ruben, are former singers of the Philharmonic Theater in Moscow and currently teach in different musical schools. They have created the Pavel Lisitsyan Benevolent Foundation. His granddaughter, Elena Lisitsian, a pianist, lives in New York City.