Doni Zokirov

Doni Zokirov was born on 26 December 1914 in Samarkand. He was a composer, a sozanda (fiddle player) and a conductor. In 1930 he began as a fiddler in the folk instruments orchestra of the Samarkand regional musical drama theatre and in 1933 became its music director.

In 1936–1937 he was a sozanda at the Uzbek State Musical Theatre, in 1937–1940 chief sozanda of the folk instruments orchestra of the Uzbek State Philharmonic, and in 1940–1947 he worked at the Muqimiy Theatre. In 1948–1953 he conducted the folk instruments orchestra of Uzbek television and radio, and in 1953–1957 he was artistic director of the Philharmonic's song and dance ensemble. In 1953 he completed the composition class of B. Nadejdin at the Tashkent Conservatory.

From 1957 he was chief conductor of the television and radio orchestra and from 1960 its artistic director; in 1989 the orchestra was named after him. He took part in creating the ballet Oynisa (1957, with B. Giyenko), the opera Zaynab and Omon (1958), the musical comedy Dalada bayram (1954) and the musical dramas Yoshlikda bergan ko'ngil and Mening jannatim. His works include the cantata Davrim sadosi (1970), the vocal-symphonic suite Qarshi cho'li gullari (1972) and songs such as Ona diyor, Ko'chalar and Samarqandim; he also arranged folk tunes and classical pieces for the folk instruments orchestra.

For cinema, together with Mikhail Ziv, he wrote the music for The Fall of the Emirate (1955), Sacred Blood (1956) and Ulugh Beg’s Star (1965). He received the title People's Artist of Uzbekistan in 1969. He died in Tashkent on 26 November 1985.