Timur Bekbosunov (born 1983) is a Kazakh-American opera singer based in Los Angeles. He has performed traditional and avant-garde music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,LA Philharmonic National Theatre (Prague), Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and orchestras around the world since 2008, including many world premieres of new operas. He was nominated in the 66th Annual Grammy Awards for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording as a lead vocalist in the opera Black Lodge.
The performer, which the Los Angeles Times dubbed one of “one of Los Angeles’ most distinctive singers”,Mark Swed (June 15, 2016) studied at California Institute of the Arts and USC and is currently the lead vocalist of the glam-opera band, Timur and the Dime Museum. Bekbosunov has also worked as a film producer including the 2019 drama Clemency (film), which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize.Matt Warren (November 21, 2019)
Opera career Timur performed as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,LA Philharmonic Los Angeles Opera,Mark Swed (June 15, 2016) National Theatre (Prague),Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Prototype Festival,Heidi Waleson (January 14, 2013) Grand Théâtre de Genève, REDCAT,Michelle Witte (March 14, 2014) Opera Philadelphia, Hawaii Opera Theater, Bard SummerScape,Ben Brantley (July 14, 2019) BAM Next Wave Festival,Jeff Tompkins (November 2015) , Théâtre de l'Athénée,Alexandre Jamar (June 11, 2021) Public Theater Joe's Pub,John Harrison (August 5, 2013) Bang on a Can All-Stars and Hollywood Bowl.Adam Crane (September 4, 2007)
Timur has performed world premieres of new opera works around the world. He has collaborated on premieres of new works by David T. Little (Black Lodge),Zachary Woolfe (October 03, 2022) Jiří Trtík (Kafka's Letter to His Father), Anne LeBaron (Crescent City, Silent Steppe Cantata),Mark Swed (May 11, 2012)Mark Swed (April 10, 2014) Thomas Adès (Powder Her Face, Switzerland premiere),Elisabeth Haas (May 26, 2021) David Lang (composer) (Anatomy Theater),Heidi Waleson (June 20, 2016) Michael Gordon (composer) (Acquanetta),George Grella (January 10, 2018) Mohammed Fairouz and Wayne Koestenbaum (Pierrot),Mark Swed (June 3, 2013)Vivien Schweitzer (June 10, 2013) Sylvano Bussotti (Silvano Sylvano), Louis Andriessen (Theater of the World),Damjan Rakonjac (June 23, 2016) Evan Ziporyn (Oedipus, A House in Bali),Frank Rizzo (June 1, 2014)Joshua Kosman (September 29, 2009) Veronika Krausas (Hopscotch (opera)),Mark Swed (November 2, 2015) Gerald Barry (The Importance of Being Earnest (opera) (Switzerland premiere),FN Redaction (May 4, 2019Philippe Venturini (May 20, 2019) Peter Eötvös (Der goldene Drache) (Switzerland premiere), Orango (Shostakovich),Ted Ayala (December 7, 2011) Tobias Picker (An American Tragedy (opera) (West Coast premiere), György Ligeti (Le Grand Macabre, (Budapest premiere).Malina János (June 2, 2013)
Timur Bekbosunov appeared with American band DeVotchKa and Nick Urata at El Rey Theatre,Michelle Shiers (January 18, 2016) Troubadour,Michael Allen Spear (December 19, 2012) “In the Shadow of Stalin” Festival at Walt Disney Concert HallDavid Mermelstein (January 14, 2007) and Red Rocks AmphitheatreMaddie (June 17, 2013) with Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Amanda Palmer and Jherek Bishoff.
Band career Timur and the Dime Museum is a glam-opera LA band formed in 2010. Band members are Timur Bekbosunov, David Tranchina, Daniel Corral, Andrew Lessman and Matthew Setzer.Mia Bonadonna (March 28, 2014)
The band appeared on America's Got Talent Season 5 with a cover of "Total Eclipse" by Kristian Hoffman, a songwriter for Klaus Nomi.Erica Zora Wrightson (June 11, 2010) The band debuted live on the ALOUD series as part of the Los Angeles Public Library Foundation billed as "operatic vaudeville with a bohemian attitude."
Timur and the Dime Museum have performed with DeVotchKa, Tiger Lillies,Sandra Burciaga Olinger (November 17, 2011) Kristian Hoffman,Greg Burke (November 3, 2010) Prince Poppycock,Richard Metzger (September 9, 2011) Ann Magnuson, Dorian Wood,Ted Ayala (May 3, 2011) Mucca Pazza, The Red Paintings. They were featured at the REDCAT Gala with Jack Black, Prototype Festival at HERE Arts Center,Marion Lignana Rosenberg (January 9, 2013) Public Theater Joe's Pub.Simone Snaith (December 8, 2013) Since 2014, Timur and the Dime Museum mostly focused on theater projects, including a puppet opera “Zoophilic Follies” by Daniel CorralBenn Widdey (September 22, 2011) with Dorian Wood at REDCAT's NOW Festival, a multimedia opera “Crescent City” by Anne LeBaron with The Industry Opera,Bethany Rickwald (April 6, 2012) a rock-opera “Collapse” by Daniel Corral at BAM Next Wave Festival,Nicole Serratore (15 September 2015) and an industrial metal opera “Black Lodge” by David T. Little at Opera Philadelphia in 2022.Keddy Michaels (October 21, 2021)
Solo projects
"Black Lodge" World premiere took place on October 1, 2022, at Opera Philadelphia as part of Festival O22 and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Drawing on the mythologies of the surrealist writer William S. Burroughs author of Naked Lunch, Black Lodge is a metal opera that uses dance, rock band, string quartet, and opera. Composed by Grammy-nominated David T. Little with libretto by Beat Generation poet Anne Waldman, Black Lodge is a “nonlinear and hallucinatory...occurring in that nightmarish place between death and rebirth” Richard Sasanow (October 06, 2022) and performed as a film screening and an industrial rock opera concert.A.D. Amorosi (August 25th, 2022) Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth said Black Lodge is "ripping through the fabric of future vision psychosis where the integrity of classic form clasps the hands of radical possibilities.” Jason Weisberger (September 15, 2022) The opera film is directed by Michael Joseph McQuilken.Michael Talbot-Haynes (November 10, 2022) The Wall Street Journal describes vocals sounding "alternately like a baroque countertenor, a baritone, a rocker and a crooner.”Heidi Waleson (October 4, 2022) Black Lodge was nominated in the 66th Annual Grammy Awards for a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. Black Lodge is a winner of the 2023 Music Theater Now Competition.David Salazar (January 17, 2024)
"The Great Soviet Bucket" World premiere took place on February 22, 2024, in Miami, Florida. The play is a dark musical comedy that "explores the phenomenon of mass brainwashing.”Miguel Sirgado (February 20, 2024) Co-commissioned by Miami Light Project and Beth Morrison Projects with support from the National Performance Network, created by Timur Bekbosunov, produced by Beth Morrison, directed by Emmy Award-nominated Sandra Powers, the play uses a puppet Comrade Bucket and the Soviet songs to ask questions about the forces of identity and politics.Miami Light Project (February 20, 2024) The show is performed by Timur Bekbosunov, pianist Matt Podd and violinist Yvette Cornelia Holzwarth.BMP (2023)
"Klaus from Space" World premiere took place on June 1, 2021, at the Klanggg Festival presented by NOFLe NOF (June 1, 2021) with electronic artist Grégoire Pasquier aka ShuttleDavid Unternährer (November 4, 2023) at Nouveau Monde, Switzerland. The show is a sci-fi cabaret inspired by the cult icon Klaus Nomi.Emell Adolphus (October 31, 2023) The Netherlands premiere took place at 2023 at TR Schouwburg ,O Festival (May 18, 2023) with guitarist and electronic artist Matthew Setzer of Skinny Puppy, bringing together Klaus Nomi's greatest hits and a world premiere of a ballad by Kristian Hoffman, the curator of the show.Neil van der Linden (May 19, 2023)
“Collapse”
World-premiere of Collapse, a multimedia glam-rock meets classical baroque requiem about environmental destruction,Elise Taylor (September 17, 2015) took place on March 27, 2014, at REDCAT Theater in Los Angeles.Donna Evans (March 25, 2014) The rock opera is composed by Daniel Corral, produced by Beth Morrison Projects, with performances at BAM Next Wave Festival, Miami Light ProjectCarlos Suarez De Jesus (April 17, 2014) and Operadagen Rotterdam Festival 2015 .Joep Stapel (May 26, 2014) Interactive video projections were designed by Jesse Gilbert with costumes by the fashion designer Victor Wilde of the Bohemian Society.TheaterMania (March 27, 2014)
Film career Timur Bekbosunov is a film producer of Clemency, a 2019 US Dramatic Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and 35th Independent Spirit Awards Best Feature category nominated drama starring Alfre Woodard, Richard Schiff, Wendell Pierce, directed by Chinonye Chukwu, with music by Kathryn Bostic, released on Milan Records. The film was distributed by Neon and Focus Features. He is a producer of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival-selected Blush, a dark comedy directed by Independent Spirit Award winner Debra Eisenstadt, starring Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine Curtin, Max Burkholder and Christine Woods.Andrew Barker (January 26, 2019) He is a producer of Measure of Revenge, a psychological thriller that stars Oscar-winner Melissa Leo and Bella Thorne, acquired by Vertical Entertainment.Matt Grobar (February 10, 2022)
As Executive Producer, Timur Bekbosunov produced Color Out of Space directed by Richard Stanley, starring Nicolas Cage, Tommy Chong, Madeleine Arthur, Joely Richardson, distributed by RLJE Films; psychological horror Daniel Isn't Real, directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer, starring Miles Robbins, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sasha Lane, Hannah Marks;Frank Scheck (December 4, 2019) a drama-fantasy Come Away, directed by Oscar-winner Brenda Chapman and starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Michael Caine, Derek Jacobi.Patrick Hipes (September 5, 2018)
Personal life Born in Kazakhstan, Timur was adopted by an American mother from Wichita, Kansas.Alina Simone (July 23, 2015) He attended University of Southern California and California Institute of the Arts.Beatrice Verhoeven (March 9, 2015)
Discography