Musicמישה אלכסנדרוביץ

Mikhail Aleksandrovich

Mikhail (Misha) Alexandrovich was a Jewish tenor and cantor from Latvia who performed classical, cantorial and popular music in several languages.

1914 to 2002Cantorial and operatic tenor singingConcerts across the Soviet UnionThe 1948 Stalin Prize

Born: 23 July 1914, Bērzpils
Died: 3 July 2002, Munich
Occupation: hazzan, opera singer, singer
Education: Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music

Mikhail Aleksandrovich was born in 1914 in Bērzpils

Alexandrovich was born on 23 July 1914 in the village of Bērzpils, in the Vitebsk Governorate, to a Jewish peasant family. His father was David Alexandrovich, and the family moved to Riga when he was a child.

He was known as a child prodigy and gave concerts in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Germany. He studied at the Riga Conservatory and graduated from it.

In the 1930s he served as a cantor in synagogues in Riga, Manchester and Kaunas. From 1940 he worked as a concert singer in the Soviet Union, and during World War II he sang in Tashkent, near the front lines and in besieged Leningrad. He received the Stalin Prize in 1948, but from 1961 his solo concerts were officially restricted.

He moved to Israel in November 1971 and served as cantor of the Great Synagogue in Ramat Gan. He later lived in the United States and from 1990 in Munich, where he died on 3 July 2002. His wife was Raisa, and most of both their families were killed in the Holocaust.