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Welcome old friends and new! Perhaps you have been a follower of Leonid Kharitonov for many years or perhaps you are a new acquaintance. This web site is our way of sharing the remarkable career of a remarkable singer with people all over the world.
Leonid Kharitonov was born in the small Siberian village of Golumet in 1933. His father went missing at the front during World War II; so he was raised by his mother and lived for a while with an uncle as well. His strong singing ability was noticed early on, and at the age of 19, after performing as a soloist for the Irkutsk Philharmonic for 2 years, he was accepted by the Moscow Conservatory. In 1953, Kharitonov became a member of the choir of the renowned Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army(now known as the Alexandrov Ensemble.) In 1965, he made his public debut as a soloist at a concert in Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. Upon leaving the Ensemble in 1972, he became a member of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, subsequently touring all over Russia and in many other countries to include England, France, Canada, the United States, Egypt, Australia, China, Switzerland, India, Korea, Czechoslovakia and more. The singer’s diverse repertoire includes Russian folk songs, Russian romances (a genre unique to Russian music similar to the ballad), opera arias and patriotic songs from the Soviet era. His main influence is the great Russian bass opera singer Feodor Shalyapin (1873-1938), whose grand piano was given to Kharitonov by Shalypin’s son and daughter.

With the Alexandrov Ensemble he recorded The Ballad about Russian Boys (music: Novikov; lyrics: Oshanin L.), John Reed Walks Around Petrograd (music: Novikov; lyrics: M. Vershinin), War Isn’t Over Yet (music: B. Muradeli; lyrics: M. Andronov), Here Lenin Lived (music: B. Terentiev; lyrics: A. Fatyanov), Lenin’s Guard (music: B Aleksandrov; lyrics: M Khotimsk), My Fatherland (music: O. Feltsman; lyrics: Oshanin L.), Veterans Don’t Grow Old in their Souls (music: Tulika S.; lyrics: Y. Belinsky), Peacefighter’s Song (music: B. Muradeli; lyrics: V. Kharitonov), Gray Hair (music: A. Ekimyan; lyrics: F. Laube), Son of the Fatherland (music: S. Tulika; lyrics: V. Lazarev), Son of Russia (music: St. Tulika; lyrics: V. Kharitonov), Ej, Uhnem (Song of the Volga Boatmen), Death of Varyag.

We invite you to explore our blog and visit often!


Most of all, we hope you will enjoy the web site


and the wonderful music!



You can listen to more of the artist's performances
on his official website here.