Mahmudjon Gofurov

Mahmudjon Gofurov was born in 1917 in Tashkent. His father died early and his mother raised him, so he started school late: from 1927 he learned the Arabic script at the school of a hafiz in Okhunguzar. From the age of ten he worked in the fields.

In 1935 he entered the Lohutiy theatre technical school and graduated in 1939; the poet and playwright Turob To‘la studied there too. From 1935 to 1940 he sang in the choir of the Uzbek Radio Committee, and in 1937 the choir took first place at a choir festival in Moscow.

From May 1939 he worked as an actor and singer at the Uzbek Musical Theatre named after Muqimiy. A tenor, he sang leading parts — Tohir, Alpomish, Haydar — in music dramas by composers T. Jalilov, S. Boboyev and M. Leviyev; in “Tahir and Zuhra”, staged in 1941, he became known as Qodir and later also played Tahir. He appeared in operettas as well.

His repertoire included songs on poems by Navoi, Mashrab, Muqimiy, Furqat and others. In 1951–1953 he was a soloist at the Navoi Opera and Ballet Theatre, then returned to the Muqimiy theatre and performed on its stage to the end of his life.

Around 1950 he was named People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR, and in the years of independence he received the Order “Mehnat shuhrati” (Labour Glory). Mahmudjon Gofurov died in 2000 and is buried in Tashkent’s G‘oyibota cemetery.