Mukhtar Ashrafi

Mukhtar Ashrafovich Ashrafi (15 December 1975) was a Soviet Uzbek composer. He was awarded the title People's Artist of the USSR in 1951. He became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1941 was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1943 and 1952.

His daughter Muqadamma was a noted medievalist.

Early life and education Mukhtar Ashrafi was born on 29 May (11 June) 1912 in Bukhara. He grew up in the family of his father, a famous Bukhara singer and musician Ashrafzhan Hafiza. At the age of seven, Ashrafi began to play Uzbek folk instruments improvising on the dutar. In 1928, Ashrafi graduated a dutar class in Bukhara and entered the Samarkand Institute of Music and Choreography. In 1948, he graduated from the conducting faculty of the Leningrad Conservatory as an external student. From 1943 to 1947, Ashrafi was a director of Alisher Navoi Uzbek Opera and Ballet Theater.

Awards and honours People's Artist of the USSR (6 December 1951) People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1939) Stalin prize 2nd class (1943) Stalin prize 3rd class (1952) State Hamza Prize (1970) Two Order of Lenin (6 December 1951 and 12 June 1972) Two Order of the Red Banner of Labour (22 December 1939 and 18 March 1959) Order of the Badge of Honour (31 May 1937) Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (25 December 1944)

In 1976, Tashkent Conservatory was named after him.

Selected works Operas Buran (1939, with S. Vasilenko) He was expelled from the Composers' Union, but later was allowed to return.