• People’s Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan
• Prize-winner at the All-Union Mikhail Glinka Competition (1991)
• Prize-winner at the Unisa Transnet International Vocalists’ Competition in Pretoria (1994, Grand Prix)
• Prize-winner at the International Fyodor Chaliapin Vocalists’ Competition in Kazan (1994, 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the International Maria Callas Competition in Athens (1995, Grand Prix)
• Prize-winner at the International Sergei Rachmaninoff Competition (1998, 1st prize)

Askar Abdrazakov was born in Ufa, a city rich in cultural traditions where Fyodor Chaliapin and Rudolf Nureyev began their careers and where Vladimir Spivakov was born. His family tree has links to the Yenikeyev princely family.

Askar’s parents were directly involved in the arts – his mother was an artist and his father was an actor, stage director, founder of the Republic of Bashkortostan Film Studios and recipient of the State Salavat Yulaev Prize.
From his childhood Askar appeared on the stage and in his father’s films. This all stimulated his artistic career.

After graduating from the Ufa State Conservatoire (class of Professor Murtazina) he undertook postgraduate studies at the Moscow State Conservatoire under Irina Arkhipova. While still a student the singer embarked on a series of wins at international competitions at which he took the 1st prizes and Grand Prix. He was the first male singer to win the Grand Prix at the Maria Callas Competition in Athens in 1995.

In 1994 he was invited to perform Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseyev, and he also performed in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia at the Bregenz Festival (Austria). The same year, he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, appearing as Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Konchak (Prince Igor).

He went on to have contracts at the world’s great opera houses, among them the Bolshoi Theatre, the Mariinsky Theatre, the Metropolitan Opera, the Washington Opera, La Scala, Barcelona’s Teatre del Liceu, NHK Hall in Tokyo, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Madrid’s Teatro Real, Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet, the Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, the Staatsoper Berlin, the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Megaron Hall in Athens, Parma’s Teatro Regio, Florence’s Teatro Comunale and the Teatro Regio and Teatro Massimo in Turin.

Among the outstanding conductors with which the singer has worked are Valery Gergiev, Mstislav Rostropovich, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Michel Plasson, Plácido Domingo, Marcello Viotti, Bruno Bartoletti, Lorin Maazel, Bertrand de Billy, Oleg Caetani, Maurizio Arena, Daniele Gatti, Alexander Anisimov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Daniel Oren, Mark Ermler, Jesús López-Cobos, Nello Santi, Mark Elder and Ralf Weikert.

His stage partners include Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mirella Freni, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
The singer has a vast repertoire including the roles of Boris (Boris Godunov), Attila (Attila), Filippo II (Don Carlo), Zaccaria (Nabucco), Banco (Macbeth), Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Don Quichotte (Don Quichotte), Méphistophélès (Faust), Mefistofele (Mefistofele), Kochubei (Mazepa) and Don Giovanni and Leporello (Don Giovanni) among others.