Kari-Iakubov, Mukhitdin

Born May 1, 1896, in Fergana; died Feb. 2, 1957, in Tashkent. Soviet Uzbek opera singer (baritone) and theatrical figure. People’s Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1936).

Kari-Iakubov, along with Kh. Khamza, participated in the work of the Dramatic Troupe of Muslim Youth in 1918. He performed Uzbek folk songs at the International Exposition of Decorative Art and Industry in Paris in 1925. In 1926 he organized a concert and ethnographic ensemble out of which the Uzbek Musical Theater was formed. From 1928 to 1932 he served as artistic director of the theater. In 1936, Kari-Iakubov became the artistic director of the Uzbek Philharmonic Society and a soloist in the Uzbek Theater of Opera and Ballet in Tashkent. Among the roles he performed were Khosrov in MusheF and Uspenskii’s Farkhad and Shirin, NaufaP in Gliere and Sady-kov’s Leili and Medzhnun, and Ulugbek in A. F. Kozlovskii’s Ulugbek. He also appeared on stage as a singer of folk songs.