Gennady Aden, whose birth surname was Belorukov, was a Soviet music teacher and opera singer. Born in 1900 in Parfenevo, he began singing in a church choir at the age of seven and later sang in a secular choir while attending gymnasium. After graduating, he worked at a drama studio in Kostroma, where he performed Russian and Gypsy songs as an amateur.
Aden began professional musical training at the Kyiv Conservatory in 1922, studying with Hector Gandolfi. He later married Gandolfi’s daughter and moved with his teacher to Moscow when Gandolfi was invited to teach at the Moscow Conservatory. Aden graduated from the Gnessin Music College in 1928 and then spent a year studying with Pio di Pietro at the Royal Conservatory in Rome. After returning to Russia, he performed as a tenor on the radio.
He began teaching in 1929 at the workers’ faculty of the Moscow Conservatory. From 1931 to 1933, he was musical director of a workers’ youth theater. In 1933 he began teaching at the Rubinstein and Ippolitov-Ivanov music colleges. He joined the Gnessin College in 1947 and, two years later, moved to the Gnessin Institute at Elena Gnessina’s invitation. The institute awarded him the title of professor in 1971.
Over more than 60 years of teaching, including 40 years at the Gnessin Institute, Aden trained performers in both classical and popular music. His students included Konstantin Lisovsky, Eduard Labkovsky, Alexander Rozum, Vyacheslav Osipov, Leonid Brazhnik, Ibrahim Jafarov, Sergei Yakovenko, Valery Obodzinsky, Vadim Mulerman, and Larisa Mondrus. He died in Moscow in 1989.