Kiizbaeva, Saira

Born Nov. 7, 1917, in the village of Tokoldosh, near the city of Frunze. Soviet Kirghiz lyric and dramatic soprano. People’s artist of the USSR (1958). Became a member of the CPSU in 1944.

In 1936, Kiizbaeva made her debut as a soloist at the Kirghiz Musical and Dramatic Theater (now the Kirghiz Theater of Opera and Ballet). She completed her training at the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied from 1947 to 1949. Kiizbaeva was the first Kirghiz singer to perform in roles of the classical and national repertoire. Her leading roles included Kuliaiim in Raukhverger’s Kokul’; Aichurek, Kanykei, and Dzhamilia in Vlasov, Maldybaev, and Fere’s Aichurek, Manas, and On the Shores of the Issyk-Kul’; Tat’iana and Liza in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades; Iaroslavna in Borodin’s Prince Igor; and Nedda in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci.

Since 1956, Kiizbaeva has taught at the Kurenkeev Music School. She has been the head of the subdepartment of solo singing at the Kirghiz Institute of the Arts since 1967. A deputy to the second through the sixth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Kirghiz SSR, Kiizbaeva has been awarded the Order of Lenin, two other orders, and several medals.