Silchukou packed just three family photos when he fled Belarus. “It’s a very courageous decision,” she said. Eliseeva, an attorney who’s also helping him with immigration issues, added that Silchukou “had many things to lose.” “People tend to hold on to little things they have that make them comfortable,” said Maria Eliseeva, whose nonprofit, Sound Ways, is producing Saturday’s concert. (Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe) Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe
Silchukou looks at his son Lawren, 3, through a window during a rehearsal at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. Here, they’ve tapped into a rich network of eastern European emigres, whose members have helped them with everything from their immigration status to Silchukou’s job at the school where their children also attend. They were lured by the city’s rich musical life and, compared to the Pacific Northwest, relative proximity to European stages. They arrived in Boston a few months later after meeting a Belarusian Bostonian at a concert in Seattle. He closed out the family bank accounts, packed four suitcases, and headed for the country of Georgia, and from there eventually made it to Seattle, where Silchukou’s parents live. “They couldn’t affect me, but they could reach Tanya,” said Silchukou, who worried the family wouldn’t be able to leave the country if the police brought charges. The family fled the following summer, when the police called Tatsiana into the station for an interview, indicating they’d launched a criminal investigation into whether she’d improperly received state maternity payments. “What should we do if you don’t come back?” “You’re a target,” she recalled recently over breakfast at their Wayland home. And Tatsiana, a mezzo-soprano on maternity leave from the Bolshoi, cautioned him against taking a more public stand. He wanted to go further, but there was his family to consider. He publicly supported other artists who’d been fired for speaking out, and he indicated his support from the stage, flashing the “victory” sign as performers received red and white bouquets from the audience, a sign of resistance he said was later prohibited by the theater. He signed an open letter calling for an end to the violence and an election recount. In the months following the 2020 election, however, Silchukou felt compelled to take a stronger stance. He recalled how he repeatedly declined to perform at annual celebrations commemorating the Russian revolution and once declined to appear under Belarus’s current “red communistic flag.” “I don’t want to be associated with that flag, because my flag is my parents’ flag, my ancestors’ flag: white, red, white.” “I was well-paid for that, but everyone knew that I would not support certain things,” said Silchukou. “His musicality was striking,” said de Caluwe, who hired Silchukou for a role in Rachmaninoff’s “The Miserly Knight.” His voice “combines mellifluousness with poise and style, amazing technique, and breath control.” De Caluwe, who serves on the competition’s jury, said he was struck immediately by the baritone’s stage presence, noting his “beautiful timbre and strong voice.”
Peter de Caluwe, general and artistic director at the Monnaie, first encountered Silchukou as the third-place winner of the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino, a singing competition. Silchukou joined the Bolshoi Theatre when he was just 23, making a name for himself as a soloist with leading roles for baritone, such as Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin” and Marcello in Puccini’s “La Bohème.” He traveled abroad frequently for singing competitions, winning the 2011 Hans Gabor and Helicon prizes at the prestigious International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, among others.Īs he built his repertoire, adding roles such as the elder Germont in Verdi’s “La Traviata,” and Valentin in Gounod’s “Faust,” he landed parts at major opera houses across Europe, including Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Oper Frankfurt, and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. “He can consider himself a person with a backbone.” “His choice is made,” said Nersessian, who teaches at BU.
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