Mukhtar Ashrafi

Born in Bukhara, Mukhtar Ashrafi was among the first composers to combine Uzbek folk music with European symphonic forms.

With Sergei Vasilenko he wrote Buran, the first Uzbek opera, and he composed the first Uzbek symphony, drawing on Navoi's poetry and folk heroes.

He became a People's Artist of the USSR in 1951, twice won the Stalin Prize and worked for many years at the Tashkent Conservatory and opera theatre.