Belarusian opera singer Silchukou, ‘cultural icon’, flees oppression for US
- Ilya Silchukou is well-known in his homeland, representing Belarus at home and abroad and performing at many European opera houses
- After protesting against his nation’s leader Lukashenko, a Putin ally, and being blacklisted, he fled and now teaches music to US children
Ilya Silchukou was a cultural icon in his native Belarus, the lead soloist at the State Opera Bolshoi who represented his nation at official government functions at home and abroad and performed at opera houses across Europe.
He lived a privileged and comfortable life in his homeland but gave it all up.
Silchukou dared to speak out against Alexander Lukashenko, who has led the former Soviet republic with an iron fist for nearly three decades.
He is now living in suburban Boston with his wife and three children and teaches music to middle school students while he tries to revive his singing career in the US, where he remains relatively unknown.
“I am known in Europe, but I’ve never performed in the States, and it was like a blank piece of paper for me, just a new page,” he said. “We had to start from scratch here.”
When Lukashenko won a sixth term in office in 2020 in an election regarded by his opposition and the West as fraudulent, Silchukou joined tens of thousands of Belarusians at election protests that were violently suppressed and resulted in the arrests of thousands.