Tenors

Kirill Nifontov

In the choir since 2021

Kirill Nifontov graduated from the Solo Singing Department of M.I. Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatory and worked as a soloist of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre for six years. As part of the musicAeterna vocal ensemble he took part in the special project at Dom Radio – “The New Habit” (2021), a production by the choreographer Claudia Castellucci set to the music of the Valaam Monastery chants.

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO THE WORLD OF MUSIC?

After graduating from school I decided to study to be a drama theatre actor. However, at my second year I realized that I would not be able to live to my full potential in this profession. At the same time I have always been interested in singing, and I decided to go to the conservatory to study opera vocal. At my second year in the conservatory I was accepted into the troupe and for six years I was a soloist of the Novosibirsk Opera, and two years ago I became part of musicAeterna. Yet the theatre still has a special place in my heart, I feel that creative excitement, so I quite often participate in musicAeterna performative projects: De temporum fine comoedia, YOUKALI, and Immortal Bach. Moreover, it fascinates me when directors pose complex plastic tasks and treat me not as a singer, but as a performer.

WHO REPRESENTS THE STANDARD OF ACTING SKILL FOR YOU?

In terms of the ability to take on the role, to communicate from the stage not himself, but the character, the greatest actor for me is Gary Oldman. If you recount the characters he played in the course of his career, you will get an incredible palette of images! Among these there are Sid Vicious, and Dracula, and Churchill, and the weapons master Zorg in the Fifth Element, and police commissioner James Gordon in The Dark Knight... Sometimes I just couldn't recognize him on the screen, for example in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, where he impersonated Sirius Black. From the point of view of dramatic identification, I have always been impressed by Joaquin Phoenix and Christian Bale.

WHAT DO YOU DO APART FROM THE WORK IN THE CHOIR?

Once, when I was still living in Novosibirsk, I saw a friend playing guitar and singing, and I thought, why don't I follow his example. I mastered the guitar and started playing covers, and at some point I plucked up the courage and decided to do my acoustic concerts in music bars - first in Novosibirsk, and now in St. Petersburg. This is my hobby, I play lounge acoustic programmes from the songs of the Beatles, Joe Cocker, Sting… In addition, I try to write my own music, but this time electronic — on analogue synthesizers, inspired by the live sets of Arnaud Rebotini.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE FILMS?

Whether you do theatre, cinema, or music, it becomes a professional curse — it becomes difficult for you not to analyse the works. But I have always fought against this in myself, and, basically, I can perceive art holistically, enjoy it, and not just disassemble it into details. In the top of my favourite directors, Lynch is in the first place for me, von Trier is in the second, Tarantino and Kubrick are also among the favourites. I admire their talent for creating separate realities-puzzles in their works filled with details and meanings, and at the same time not being unintelligible.

WHERE DO YOU FEEL AT HOME?

I grew up in Akademgorodok near Novosibirsk. That is a beautiful place surrounded by forest, with an abundance of sunny days and a very obvious climate: winter is like winter with an honest minus thirty and snow, and summer is always hot. For me now it is the town of my childhood where I like to return to my family as soon as such an opportunity arises. Once in St. Petersburg I was in the area of Veterans’ Avenue, saw the Khrushchev era residential buildings near the forest and suddenly felt for a moment that tears were filling my eyes for some reason. Then I realized that this was how the feeling of home suddenly woke up in me.