Kamil Tchalaev (31/05/1962), a Russian composer and singer. He was born in Moscow, Tchalaev pursued a classical musical formation notably in violin and bass studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory College of Moscow before becoming a bass singer and instrumentalist at the Lenkom Theater. Already at 20 he began practicing sacred singing followed by choral directing which led to his first "independent recordings" in Moscow both as a singer and composer. He made his debut at the Anatoly Vassiliev Academy of Drama in 1985 and gave the premiere of his Symphony No.1. He also participated in the production of The possessed by Dostoyevski. In 1989, he left Moscow, lived briefly in Finland and finally settled down in Paris where he currently resides.
He was seen in 1992 at La Comedie Francaise in The masked bal of Lermontov and in Moliere's Amphitryon. During this period, he also pursued studies of electronic music at the prestigious IRCAM under Pierre Boulez and composed his second String quartet, a series of Convertible Musics and specialized as a Bass Singer in the lyrical vocal repertoire as well as the contemporary - Berio, Wenjing, Messiaen, Xenakis, Saariaho, Cage, under the direction of Eric Ericson, Laurence Equilbey, Laurent Heyrabedian, Kent Nagano, Jonattan Nott, David Robertson, Peter Sellars... His discography includes more than 20 recordings on various labels.
Correspondingly, Tchalaev studied ethnographic film at L'Ecole of Superior Studies in Paris (Religious Sciences) and also pursued ethnomusicological studies as well. He possesses a 5-octave range and practices vocal techniques from Eastern Europe, has perfect pitch, and also owns a rare collection of musical instruments all of which he plays. Tchalaev is often considered one of the most original and unclassifiable musicians of his generation.