Medeniyet Shahberdiyeva

Medeniyet "Maya" Shahberdiyeva (; 23 February 1930 – 3 January 2018) was a Turkmen opera singer of the Soviet era, known as the "Golden Voice of the Motherland" and the "Turkmen Nightingale". She was orphaned at age 7, was raised in the orphanage in Mary, and in childhood was harassed by schoolboys who threw rocks at her due to her status as an orphan.

Upon admission to the Turkmen Music Boarding School, she began to study violin. However, upon admission to the Pedagogical Institute, she was denied admission to the violin program and told to matriculate in the Mathematics Department of Turkmen State University. Shahberdiyeva demonstrated her vocal talent to the instructors, and was admitted to the Music Department as a student of voice. After one year, she was transferred to Moscow to study at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Later in life, she recalled, "It [music] completely changed my life.”

After Turkmenistan became independent in 1991, Shahberdiyeva continued to receive recognition from the government of Turkmenistan only following the death of Turkmenistan's first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who banned opera and ballet as non-Turkmen, and closed the opera theater. During that period, until Niyazov's death in 2006, she taught voice to a small circle of students but performed only in private gatherings. She was the subject of a documentary which was shown in Ashgabat in 2008. In 2010, on occasion of her 80th birthday, she received the Golden Age Award, 3rd Degree, from the government.