Muhiddin Qori-Yoqubov

Muhiddin Qori-Yoqubov was born on 1 May 1896 in what is now the city of Fergana, into a poor family with many children. He attended an old-method school and, in 1912–1914, a madrasa, where he mastered Quran recitation and became known as a qori; from his youth he also sang folk songs without notation. In 1916 he organised a brass band of local musicians, and in 1918 he took part, together with Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy, in founding the “Dramatic Troupe of Muslim Youth”.

In 1919–1921 he performed with the Fergana folk brass band for Red Army units on the Turkestan front and played dramatic roles in Hamza’s “Political Troupe”. He studied at K. Shorstein’s theatre studio in Tashkent (1919) and then in the vocal department of the State Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS) in Moscow (1922–1924). In 1923 he was recognised as the first People’s Singer (hafiz) of the Turkestan Republic.

In 1925, together with Tamara Khanum, he performed Uzbek folk songs at the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris and on concert stages in Berlin; Europeans nicknamed him the “Uzbek Chaliapin”. In 1926 he formed a concert-ethnographic ensemble of Uzbeks, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Kyrgyz and others, and toured many Soviet cities with it. The ensemble grew into the Uzbek State Musical Theatre, where Qori-Yoqubov was actor, director and artistic head (1929–1933); he also took part in shaping the musical theatres of Kokand and Andijan. In 1930 he received the title of Honoured Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR, and in 1936 that of People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR.

In 1934 he organised an Uzbek opera studio in Moscow and led it for two years; future well-known artists such as Mukhtar Ashrafi, Halima Nosirova and Karim Zokirov came out of it. After the opera and ballet theatre opened, he was its leading soloist in 1939–1947, singing Khosrov in “Farhad and Shirin”, Naufal in “Layli and Majnun”, Ulugbek in “Ulugbek”, Mahmud Torobi in the opera of that name, Er Targ‘in in “Er Targ‘in” and the governor-general in the opera “Buran”, which premiered in June 1939. In the 1930s and again in 1946–1950 he was director and artistic head of the Uzbek State Philharmonic and built folk and classical ensembles within it.

In 1937 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour. He was later repressed and was released in 1955. From January 1956 he again worked as a soloist of the philharmonic, and then sang folk songs, opera arias and romances at the Variety Theatre. In January 1957 he broke his hip in an accident and died two weeks later, on 2 February, in Tashkent; he is buried in the Chigatoy cemetery.

The Uzbek State Philharmonic bears his name, and the Academy of Folk Song and Dance and a street in Tashkent are named after him. On 25 August 2000 he was posthumously awarded the Order “Buyuk xizmatlari uchun”.