Background
Mikhail Alexandrovich was born on the 23 of July 1914,in the village of Bērzpils, Vitebsk Governorate (now part of Balvi Municipality, Latvia), in the family of Jewish peasants.
Mikhail Alexandrovich was born on the 23 of July 1914,in the village of Bērzpils, Vitebsk Governorate (now part of Balvi Municipality, Latvia), in the family of Jewish peasants.
He studied at and graduated from the Riga Conservatory.
Mikhail Davidovich Alexandrovich, a.k.a. He performed for nearly 75 years, since his first concert as a 9-year old in Riga, until the last one, in Moscow, May 26, 1997. From 1920-1926, aged six to twelve, he gained popularity as a child prodigy.
In 1930s for a long time he was a hazzan (cantor) at synagogues in Riga, Manchester (1934-1937) and Kaunas (1937-1940).
Since the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 onwards he was a concert and chamber music singer in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. However since 1961 an official restriction was placed on his solo concerts. He emigrated to live in Israel from 1971 to 1974, then to the United States from 1975 to 1990, and from 1990 until his death he lived in Germany.
The whole family of Raisa and nearly all family of Mikhail perished during the Holocaust.