Dilbar Abdurahmonova

Dilbar Gulomovna Abdurahmonova was born on 1 May 1936 in Moscow, where her parents, both Uzbek opera artists, were studying at the Uzbek opera studio attached to the Moscow Conservatory. She grew up in Tashkent. From 1948 to 1955 she studied the violin at the Gliere Music School, attending the city's 110th mathematics school at the same time.

At the Tashkent State Conservatory she first graduated in violin under B. Titel (1959) and then in opera and symphonic conducting in the class of Mukhtar Ashrafi (1960). In 1957, as a third-year student, she made her conducting debut and won a diploma at the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. From 1957 to 1960 she played violin in the orchestra of the Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre.

From 1960 she was a conductor of the theatre, and in 1974–1990 its chief conductor and artistic director; afterwards she kept working as a staging conductor. She was the first woman conductor in Uzbekistan. Her repertoire includes more than 60 opera and ballet productions: besides the world classics — Verdi’s Aida and Otello, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and The Queen of Spades, Adam’s Giselle, Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel — scores by Uzbek composers.

In the 1970s she became especially known as a ballet conductor. For staging A. Kozlovsky’s ballet Tanovar she received the Hamza State Prize of the Uzbek SSR in 1973. She was named People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR in 1969 and People’s Artist of the USSR in 1977. With the theatre she toured Egypt (1966), Germany, Romania, Thailand and Singapore, as well as many Soviet cities.

In 1982 she completed, by correspondence, the department of theatre economics and planning at the Ostrovsky Tashkent Theatre and Art Institute. She taught opera performance at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan and became a professor. She received the Order of the Friendship of Peoples (1986) and, in independent Uzbekistan, the Shuhrat Medal (2001) and the Order «For Selfless Service» (2012). She died in Tashkent on 20 March 2018 and was buried at the Minor cemetery.