Yakov Strizhak was born in Petropavlovsk (North Kazakhstan Region). In 2010 he graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory (class of Sergei Alexashkin).
In 2005–2007 the singer was a soloist with the St Petersburg Chamber Opera, in 2011–2012 he was with the Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St Petersburg Conservatory, in 2013–2014 – with the New Israeli Opera (Tel Aviv), and in 2014–2015 – with the Komische Oper Berlin. From 2017 to 2022 Yakov worked as a soloist with the St Petersburg State Musical Theatre for Children Zazerkalye. There he has performed the roles of Vasily Sobakin (The Tsar’s Bride), King René (Iolanta), Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr Miracle and Dapertutto (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Dr Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro), Colline (La bohème), Mustafà (L’italiana in Algeri), the Imperial Commissioner and Bonze (Madama Butterfly), Zuniga (Carmen), Crown (Porgy and Bess), Lodovico (Verdi’s Otello), Dulcamara (L’elisir d’amore) and Geronimo (Il matrimonio segreto).
In 2007 in Ireland and Norway the artist has sung the part of the Priest in the world premiere of Shostakovich’s opera The Tale of the Priest and His Worker, Balda. Has appeared at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia, the Jerusalem Theatre, the Auditorium concert hall in Haifa, the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (Bard College, New York State) and the Karelian State Philharmonic (Petrozavodsk). In 2008 the singer took part in the Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam. In 2021 he appeared as Rocco at the Hermitage Theatre’s premiere of a new production of the opera Fidelio.
Since 2017 he has also been a soloist with the St Petersburg Concert. Has collaborated with such conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Frédéric Chaslin, Sergei Stadler, Andrei Petrenko, Pavel Bubelnikov, Anatoly Rybalko, Arkady Steinlucht, Leon Botstein and Dan Ettinger.
At the Mariinsky Theatre Yakov Strizhak made his debut in 2008, appearing in the world premiere of Alexander Smelkov’s opera The Brothers Karamazov.
Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Holofernes (Serov’s Judith, chamber version)
The Magician Celio (The Love for Three Oranges)
Tikhon Shcherbaty, the Bolkonskys’ Butler and Gavrila (War and Peace)
Bearded Peasant (Dead Souls)
Old Man (Smelkov’s The Brothers Karamazov)
Mustafà (L’italiana in Algeri)
Don Magnifico (La Cenerentola)
Sir Giorgio Valton (I puritani)
Lord Gualtiero Valton (I puritani, concert performance)
Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale)
Zaccaria and the High Priest of Baal (Nabucco)
Marcel (Les Huguenots)
Nilakantha (Lakmé)
Pandolfe (Cendrillon, concert performance)
Bluebeard (Bluebeard’s Castle)
Bass parts in Bach’s Weihnachts-Oratorium (Christmas Oratorio) (parts I–III and VI) and Berlioz’ Roméo et Juliette, role of Yedinitsyn in Shostakovich’s Antiformalist Rayok
Has sung in the premieres of new Mariinsky Theatre productions of The Love for Three Oranges (2022, 1991 production revival) and Nabucco (2023).
His repertoire also includes: Archbishop (The Maid of Orleans), Malyuta Skuratov (The Tsar’s Bride), the Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Don Basilio (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), Marchese d’Obigny and Dr Grenvil (La traviata), Cesare Angelotti (Tosca), Plutone (Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo), Sam (Gershwin’s Blue Monday), Barnabas (Miloš Vacek’s The Emperor’s New Clothes), Old Servant (The Demon), bass roles in Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa solemnis.
