Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Kiselev graduated from high school in St. Petersburg in 1977, and enrolled in the Academy of Culture “N.K.Krupsky”, which he attended from 1977 to 1979, graduating with high grades (Faculty of Humanities diploma), as theatre director.

In 1979 he enrolled in the Academy of Theatre, Music and Cinema, graduating in 1984, again with high grades. He then joined the Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Leningrad Military County for two years during his military service. In 1990, he participated in the competition in the Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna and won a prize. In 1991 he won a prize in the “Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Competition” in Sankt Petersburg, and also won a prize in the “Sergei Yesenin Competition” in 1995, held in honor of the 100th anniversary of Yesenin’s birth. In 1986 he joined the Operetta Theatre in St. Petersburg. In 1990 he became a soloist in the Chamber Philharmonics, and in 1992 a soloist in the Theatre romances of Smolny Sobor. In 1993, he was a soloist in the Music Hall, and in 1995 a soloist in the Marinski Theatre (Kirovsky) and the Opera and Ballet Theatre of Musorski.

He has toured in Japan, France, Sweden, Italy, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Greece and the USA, and has performed with the following famous musicians: J.Termikanov, V.Georgiev, M.Rostropovich, G.Vishnevski, M.Fedotov, and Jose Cura.

He has sung the parts of: Almaviva in Il Barbier di Siviglia (Rossini), Alfredo in La Traviata (Verdi), Lenski in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), The Duke of Mantova in Rigoletto (Verdi), Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore (Donizetti), Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet (Tchaikovsky), Florville in Il Signor Bruschino (Rossini), Rinuccio in Gianni Schicci (Puccini), Fenton in Falstaff (Verdi), Rodolfo in La Bohème (Puccini), Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte (Mozart), Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Zinovi Borisovich in Katarina Izmailova (Shostakovich), Vladimir Igoryevich in Prince Igor (Borodin), Don Jose in Carmen (Bizet), Alfredo and Genrich in Die Fledermaus (Strauss), Rossillione in The Merry Widow (Lehar), Edvin in Die Czardasfürstin (Kalman), Vodemon in Iolanta (Tchaikovsky) and others. He performed as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, Shostakovich’s Yiddish Songs and Songs about Forests, Zajc’s Oratorio The Original Sin, Mozart’s Krönungsmesse, Puccini’s Tosca, and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.

In 1998 he came to Croatia and was offered a post in the “Ivan pl. Zajc” Croatian National Theatre in Rijeka. Occasionally, he also performs in the CNT Zagreb and CNT Osijek. On September 25, 2000, he performed in the Millennium Concert in the UN in New York. On November 20, 2005, he performed in Mozart’s Requiem in Carnegie Hall in New York.