(b Fergana Basin, 9 June 1952). Uzbek ghidjak player and composer. He came from a family of musicians and played the ghidjak and the rubāb from an early age. He also performed Uzbek traditional music on the violin; in the Fergana area, the ghidjak was sometimes replaced in ensembles by the violin. In 1967 he began to study at the Fergana College of Music, and in 1971 he became a student at the Tashkent State Conservatory. From 1975 to 1996 he performed in the Uzbek State Radio makom ensemble founded by Yunus Rajabi. In 1978 he took part in an international symposium for traditional music held in Samarkand, and two years later he was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of Uzbekistan. The Tashkent division of Melodiya released six recordings of his performances, and in 1987 he received the company’s Golden Gramophone award. In 1990 he was named Artist of the People of Uzbekistan. His repertory includes pieces from the Tashkent-Fergana makom, the Khorezm makom and the Bukhara shashmakom as well as Indian rāgas and western art music.
His importance lies in his contribution to the ghidjak repertory in Uzbekistan. Ismailov introduced rapid and technically demanding solo passages for the ghidjak into well-known Uzbek traditional classical songs. He also developed a new combination of instruments; in 1984 he founded an ensemble including the ghidjak, the nay (played by Abdulahat Abdurashidov) and the kanun (Abdurahman Holtojiev). The ensemble subsequently toured extensively and was noted for its rapid and complex development of musical material within the Uzbek traditional classical style; it performed traditional melodies as well as pieces created specifically for the combination of ghidjak, nay and kanun, including about 20 of Ismailov’s compositions.
Music of the Past Uzbek Empires, UNESCO (forthcoming)
RAZIA SULTANOVA