Pjotr Konyshev was born in a village near Vitsebsk (Belarus). After school, he worked in a needle factory in Vitsebsk.
In WWII, he fought in the Red Army on the Dnieper, in the Caucasus and in the Baltics, and was wounded three times. But also his
voice was discovered in the army.
After demobilisation, he studied voice in Riga, already performing in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Baltic Military District
while still a student at the conservatory. After graduation, he was engaged by the Latvian State Philharmonic.
When Sergej Lemeshev sang in Riga in 1955, Konyshev made his acquaintance, and on
Lemeshev's recommendation, he took part in an audition for the Bolshoj. As a result, he would have been accepted, not to the Bolshoj,
but to the Kirov (Mariinskij)... but he had to fulfill his contract in Riga.
In 1957, he was free to accept an invitation to the Kujbyshev opera house (Kujbyshev was the Soviet name of Samara), where he spent
the next 15 years with roles like Bajan, Lenskij, Simpleton, Vodemon, Alfredo, Rodolfo, Beppo, Cavaradossi and Duca, and became a
great favorite with the audience.
He quit the stage in 1972, and devoted himself to voice teaching at the Samara music school (until 1989). His death was caused by
an accident.
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