Aleksandr Kipnis was born in Zhitomir, the capital of the Volhynian Governorate, in the Russian Empire (today part of Ukraine).

After his father died, when he was aged 12, he helped support the family as a carpenter's apprentice and by singing soprano in local synagogues and in Bessarabia (now Moldova) until his voice changed.

As a teenager he took part in a Yiddish theatrical group, until he entered the Warsaw Conservatory at age 19.

On the recommendation of the choirmaster, he traveled to Berlin and studied voice with Ernst Grenzebach who was also a teacher of Lauritz Melchior, Meta Seinemeyer, and Max Lorenz.

[citation needed] When the First World War started, Kipnis was interned as an alien in a German holding camp.

He made his operatic debut in 1915, singing three Johann Strauss songs as a "guest" in the party scene of the operetta Die Fledermaus.

[citation needed] The following year Kipnis visited the United States with a touring Wagnerian company.

In addition to those European and American theatres already mentioned in this article, he was heard at the United Kingdom's foremost venue for singers, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, (in 1927 and 1929–1935), and also at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (1926–1936).

They included Ernest Ansermet, John Barbirolli, Thomas Beecham, Leo Blech, Fritz Busch, Albert Coates, Karl Elmendorff, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Robert Heger, Herbert von Karajan, Josef Krips, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Hans Knappertsbusch, Serge Koussevitzky, Erich Leinsdorf, Willem Mengelberg, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Pierre Monteux, Karl Muck, Arthur Nikisch, Eugene Ormandy, Hans Pfitzner, Fritz Reiner, Artur Rodziński, Hans Rosbaud, Hermann Scherchen, Richard Strauss, George Szell, Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter and Felix Weingartner.