Mukhtar Ashrafi

Mukhtar Ashrafi was born on 29 May (11 June) 1912 in Bukhara.[4] He grew up in the family of his father, a famous Bukhara singer and musician Ashrafzhan Hafiza.[5] At the age of seven, Ashrafi began to play Uzbek folk instruments improvising on the dutar.[2] In 1924, he entered Oriental Music School in Bukhara.[6] In 1928, Ashrafi graduated a dutar class in Bukhara and entered the Samarkand Institute of Music and Choreography.[2]

From 1934 to 1936, he studied in a composition class of Sergei Vasilenko at the Moscow Conservatory.[4] In 1934, Ashrafi wrote Komsomol and pioneer songs, and in 1935-1936, he wrote lyrical songs on the words of Ruzuli, working on his first opera at the same time.[5]

Together with his teacher, Sergei Vasilenko, Ashrafi wrote the first Uzbek opera “Buran” that was staged in 1939, starting the history of Uzbek Opera and Ballet Theater.[5]

In 1941-1944, Ashrafi studied composition at the Leningrad Conservatory.[7] In 1948, he graduated from the conducting faculty of the Leningrad Conservatory as an external student.[4]

In 1942, Ashrafi created the first Uzbek heroic symphony.[8]

Сommemorative plaque, Mukhtar Ashrafi museum

From 1943 to 1947, Ashrafi was a director of Alisher Navoi Uzbek Opera and Ballet Theater.[6] Since 1944 Ashrafi was a teacher, and since 1953 - a professor at the Tashkent Conservatory.[4]

In 1964-66 he was a director, artistic director and chief conductor of the Samarkand Opera and Ballet Theater, and since 1966 - a director, artistic director and chief conductor of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of the Uzbek SSR in Tashkent.[7]

From 1971 to 1975, Ashrafi was a rector of the Tashkent Conservatory.[2]

Ashrafi is the author of the books "Indian Diaries" (in Russian and Uzbek), "Music in my life", numerous articles in magazines and periodicals.[6]

Mukhtar Ashrafi died on 15 December 1975 in Tashkent.[4] In 1976 Tashkent Conservatory was named after Ashrafi.[7]

In 1937, Ashrafi was awarded a title of an Honored Artist of the Uzbek SSR.[6] The same year he received an Order of the Badge of Honor (1937).[6] In 1939 Ashrafi was awarded a title of the People’s Artist of Uzbek SSR, as well as his first Order of the Red Banner of Labor.[2]

In 1943, for the "Heroic Symphony" he was awarded the second Stalin Prize degree (50,000 rubles), which he donated to the Defense Fund for the creation of an air squadron and a tank column.[2]

In 1951, Ashrafi was awarded a title of the People’s Artist of the USSR.[2] The same year he received his first Order of Lenin.[4]

In 1952, he received Stalin Prize of the third degree for the cantata "Song about happiness".[7] In 1959, Ashrafi was awarded his second Order of the Red Banner of Labor.[2] His other awards include a Medal "In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin", a Medal "For valiant labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945" and a State Prize of the Uzbek SSR named after Hamza (1970).[4]

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Ashrafi, on 11 June 1982, a museum was opened in the house where he lived and worked from 1967 to 1975.[8] In 2019, a memorial evening of Ashrafi was held in the assembly hall of the Union of Composers and Bastakors of Uzbekistan.[9]

Operas

• Buran (1939, with S. Vasilenko)[4]
• Grand Canal (1941, with S. Vasilenko)
• Dilaram (1958)
• Heart of a Poet (1962)

Ballets

• Love Amulet (1969)
• Timur Malik (1970)
• Stoikost' (1971)
• Love and Dream (1973)

Orchestral works

• Symphony No. 1 "Heroic" (1942; awarded Stalin Prize)
• Symphony No. 2 "Glory to the Victors" (1944)
• Kantatu o Schast'ye (1952; awarded Stalin Prize)
• Oratorio Skazanie o Rustame (1974)
• Music for theater, films, etc.