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Mukhtar Ashrafovich Ashrafi[a] (11 June [O.S. 29 May] 1912 – 15 December 1975) was a Soviet Uzbek composer. He was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR in 1951.[1] He became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1941 was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943 and 1952.[2] He is known as the author of the first Uzbek opera “Buran” (together with Sergei Vasilenko) and the first Uzbek symphony.[2]
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] 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 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]
- People's Artist of the USSR (6 December 1951)[10]
- People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1939)[11]
- Stalin prize 2nd class (1943)[12]
- Stalin prize 3rd class (1952)[13]
- State Hamza Prize (1970)[14]
- Two Order of Lenin (6 December 1951[15] and 12 June 1972)[16]
- Two Order of the Red Banner of Labour (22 December 1939[17] and 18 March 1959)[18]
- Order of the Badge of Honour (31 May 1937)[19]
- Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (25 December 1944)[20]
In 1976, Tashkent Conservatory was named after him.[7] On the occasion of the 70th birthday 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.[21]
- 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.
Ashrafi was accused of plagiarism in 1959, and Dmitri Shostakovich concluded that the allegations were true.[22][23][24]
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