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Ефрем Флакс

Russian singer (bass). (b. 2 (15) January 1909 St. Petersburg, Russian Empire - d. 17 December 1982 Leningrad, RSFSR, USSR) The youngest of nine children, Efrem Flaks lost his father, the owner of a photographer's studio, at age three. Due to financial hardships, his mother gave him and a sister to an orphanage, where he stayed from 1921-1926. Efrem Flaks worked as a miner, stoker, construction worker, and cab driver before he was accepted to the vocal class of the Leningrad Conservatory, from which he graduated with honors in 1936. From 1939-1942 and then again from 1950-1970 he sang with the Leningrad Philharmonic Society. He also performed on the radio. During the war, he volunteered for the People's Militia and later served as part of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the North-Western Front. After the war, from 1947-1968, he taught at the Leningrad Conservatory. In 1960, he was named a Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR. He is buried in the Preobrazhensky Jewish cemetery of St. Petersburg.