Muyassar Razzakova

Muyassar Qodirovna Razzakova was born on 29 February 1964 in the Beruniy district of Karakalpakstan. As a child she sang in a village amateur circle, learning folk songs and maqoms, and picked up opera arias by ear from the radio. At thirteen she told her parents that she wanted to become an opera singer.

From 1981 to 1988 she studied solo singing and operatic training at the Tashkent State Conservatory; her teachers included Rosalinda Laut and Saodat Qobulova. After graduating she was taken on as a soloist of the Alisher Navoi State Academic Bolshoi Theatre, where her first major role was Violetta in Verdi's La traviata.

In 1989 she won first prize at the republican competition of young opera singers in Tashkent and later became a laureate of international competitions in Latvia, Hungary and Italy. She has toured in the USA, Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Hungary, Turkey, South Korea and Egypt. A lyric coloratura soprano, she sings parts from operas by Verdi, Donizetti, Rossini and Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as leading roles in Uzbek operas, including Dilorom and Oykhon.

She was named Honoured Artist of Uzbekistan in 1993, People's Artist of Uzbekistan in 1998 and People's Artist of Karakalpakstan in 1999. In the 1999 elections she was chosen as a deputy of the second Oliy Majlis of the Republic of Uzbekistan for the Beruniy constituency. In 2011, for the twentieth anniversary of independence, she received the Order “Buyuk xizmatlari uchun”, and in 2020 the Order “Mehnat shuhrati”.

Since 2011 she has taught at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, where she is a professor and head of the department of academic singing and opera training. She also performs in concerts together with her students.