Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall will host a concert dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the People's Artist of Azerbaijan, famous conductor Rauf Abdullayev.

Rauf Abdullayev has been artistic director and chief conductor of the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra named after Uzeir Hajibey for many years.

At the jubilee concert, maestro will perform together with the world-famous violinist, Grammy Award winner in the nominations "Classic Album of the Year" (1996) and "Best Instrumental Soloist with Orchestra" (2004) Maxim Vengerov.

The concert starts at 19:00.

The People’s Conductor, professor Rauf Abdullayev is a great representative of Azerbaijan's musical culture.

Hundreds of music lovers from France, Germany, U.S., Russia, Great Britain, Turkey, Greece, Iraq, Egypt, Belgium, Italy, Finland, Austria, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mexico and etc. are familiar with his outstanding performances.

He graduated with honors from the Piano faculty of the Uzeyir Hajibeyli Baku Academy of Music and the faculty of Opera and Symphonic Conducting of the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory. Following his graduation, he was invited to serve as a conductor to the Opera House in Baku, where he worked as the Chief Conductor from 1968 to 1984. Since 1984, Rauf Abdullayev serves as the Artistic Director and the Chief Conductor of the Azerbaijan State Symphonic Orchestra.

Under his supervision, the orchestra has achieved a high level of performance widely evidenced by numerous successful tours abroad.

Abdullayev's wide-ranging repertoire includes music of different epochs, styles and directions.

Conductor pays special attention to the performance of musical compositions by Azerbaijani composers. Many operas, ballets and symphonies by great national composers were performed for the first time both in Azerbaijan and abroad underhis supervision. He is also the founder and the organizer of classical music festivals such as “Music of the 20th Century” named after Gara Garayev.

Rauf Abdullayev has been awarded state and many other honorary awards and titles during his active and untiring career. Also, during his service as the chief conductor of the Ankara Ballet Theatre and Opera from 1993 to 1997, he was twice awarded the title of the Best Conductor of the Year of Turkey.

This year, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev signed an order on awarding Rauf Abdullayev with the Istiglal Order for great achievements in the development and propaganda of the Azerbaijani musical culture.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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