Tolib Shakhidi

Tolib Shakhidi

Tolib-khon Shakhidi (Толиб-хон Шахиди) or Tolib Shahidi (Tajik: Толиб Шаҳидӣ/Persian: طالب شهیدی‎, born 13 March 1946) is a Tajik, Russian, and Soviet composer who was born in the city of Dushanbe, Tajik SSR. He is a son of the founder of Professional Tajik Academic Music - Ziyodullo Shakhidi.

Tolib-khon Shakhidi began his musical career at the age of fourteen. He graduated from the Musical College in Dushanbe in 1965 from the Composition Class of Uri Ter-Osipov. In the same year, he entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory. During his student years in Moscow, he strove to be at the centre of musical activities. Conductors such as Mikhail Terion and Maxim Shostakovich performed his orchestral and instrumental compositions.

In 1972 Tolib Shakhidi graduated from the Moscow Conservatory from the class of Aram Khachaturian. 'Tolib, your time is precious,' wrote the famous master on Shakhidi's graduation photograph – and since then, this has become the composer's fundamental belief both in life and in his creative work.

From 1972 to this day, Tolib Shakhidi has participated in a number of music festivals and has striven to produce innovative and powerful compositions. His music attempts to create a synthesis between East and West. His brilliant understandings of orchestration and familiarity with different musical styles have firmly established him in the contemporary music scene.

Working in a number of different genres, including theatre and cinema, Shakhidi's compositions often serve as the vehicle for the musical representation of intensely powerful plays. Drawing inspiration from playwrights such as Sophocles and Shakespeare, Shakhidi's compositions capture the listener's imagination much as a dramatic representation would. A master of different genres, including operas, ballets, symphonies and instrumental compositions, his work represents a unique fusion of the very best of the European and Asian musical traditions. He is a contemporary artist, whose world outlook transcends national boundaries. In this capacity, he regularly participates and has a great success in International festivals of Contemporary Music in Europe and U.S. (1987, 2001), in Japan, Baltic States, Central Asia, Iran and Turkey. The musical pieces of the composer have been performed by such orchestras as Philadelphia & Boston Symphony Orchestra, State Symphonic Orchestra of USSR, Orchestra of Valery Gergiev, Bolshoy Symphonic Orchestra of Russia n.a. Tchaikovsky, Orchestra of Cinematography conducted by Sergei Skripka, Saint Petersburg State Philharmonic Orchestra n.a Dmitri Shostakovich. Musicians such as cello performer Yo Yo Ma, violinist Sergey Kravtchenko and French saxophone player Pierre Stephane Meuge have performed the music of the master. He also has worked with conductors among which are Maxim Shostakovich, Dmitry Kitaenko, Charles Ansbacher, Mark Ermler, Sergey Skripka, Michael Terian, Dzhansug Kakhidze, Vladimir Kozhukhar, Valery Gergiev, Zakhid Khaknazarov, Eldar Azimov and Bijan Khadem-Missagh.

"Taste, intellect, professionalism are the three main values of contemporary music" ("Official web-site".). This aphorism, expressed by the composer fully complies with his own creative work. Tolib Shahidi represents a very rare type of Universal master-composer, who possesses the whole arsenal of contemporary musical language, yet uses the richest resources of traditional Eastern music of his region. This twin pillar is not an obstacle, but the most important source of his artistic power and originality.

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