Arif Malikov

Arif Malikov was born in Baku. He studied at the Asef Zeynalli Music School (1948) and the Azerbaijan State Conservatory (1953-1958, class of Gara Garayev). For a while he taught at the Shusha Music School.

In the first year of the Conservatory, he wrote works for piano, violin and quartet. In 1956, composer Dmitry Shostakovich, who participated in the first congress of Azerbaijani composers, highly appreciated his talent. The ballets “7 Beauties” and “Thunderous Paths” staged during these years had a decisive influence on his future creativity. The first performance of the ballet “The Legend of Love” took place at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater in 1961. After that, the ballet began to tour the whole world, being staged on the stages of 63 countries. His creativity covers various genres. He is the author of the ballet "The Legend of Love", the symphonic poems "Fairy Tale", "Fuzuli", "Homeland", "Metamorphoses", "The Last Passage", and six symphonies.

He is the composer of the films of foreign film producers "Epic about Rustam" (1971, director Bension Kimyagerov / Tajikistan), "Heart Issues" (1973, director Ajdar Ibrahimov / Russia), "Ali the Lightning Horseman" (1975, director Hasan Hajigasimov / Russia), "Rustam and Sohrab" (1976, director Bension Kimyagerov / Tajikistan).

Since 1958, he began teaching at the Baku Academy of Music, worked as a professor (1979) and head of the composition department. He became a full member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (2014).

Arif Malikov, laureate of the State Prize (1986), recipient of the Order of "Independence" (1998) and the "Heydar Aliyev" Order (2013), Honored Artist (1965), People's Artist of Azerbaijan (1978) and the USSR (1986), died in 2019 and was buried in the Alley of Honor.