Shovket Mamedova Azerbaijani opera singer (lyric coloratura soprano) and teacher. Date of Birth: 18.04.1897 Country: Azerbaijan

Biography of Shovket Mamedova

Shovket Mamedova was an Azerbaijani opera singer (lyric coloratura soprano) and educator. She was born in 1897 in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, Georgia, into a poor Azerbaijani family. Her father, a shoemaker, noticed her remarkable musical talent when she was six years old. In 1910, he found a sponsor who helped organize her first performance at a social banquet hosted by the vice-governor of the Caucasus, Count Illarion Vorontsov-Dashkov.

In 1911, she traveled to Milan, Italy, to pursue her musical education at the Milan Conservatory, funded by Azerbaijani millionaire and patron Zeynalabdin Taghiyev and his wife Sona. However, in 1912, the financial support from them was abruptly cut off for unknown reasons, and Mamedova was forced to return home. That same year, she enrolled in a music school in Tiflis.

At the age of 15, she made her debut on the stage of the Taghiyev Theater in Baku, performing a part from Uzeyir Hajibeyli's musical comedy "Husband and Wife." In 1915, she entered the Kiev Conservatory (now Kiev Music Academy) and met composer Reinhold Glière. Through her acquaintance with Mamedova, Glière became interested in Azerbaijani folk music and later traveled to Karabakh, where he met several professional mugam performers. In 1934, he dedicated his famous opera "Shahsenem" to Mamedova, based on his impressions from that trip. By that time, she had already gained recognition as a talented opera singer.

From 1921, Mamedova toured in Moscow, Leningrad, Paris, Milan, Tabriz, and Tbilisi, performing arias from "La Traviata," "The Barber of Seville," "Rigoletto," "Les Huguenots," and others. She finally managed to complete her education in Milan between 1927 and 1930 before returning to Azerbaijan to continue her work at the Azerbaijan State Theater of Opera and Ballet in Baku.

In 1923, Shovket Mamedova founded a music sheet publishing house and the Baku Theater College (now Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts) in Baku. She later became the head of the vocal department at the Azerbaijan State Conservatory, where she taught until her death in 1981.

In 1915, while studying at the Kiev Conservatory, Mamedova married engineer Yakov Lyubarsky, whom she had met three years earlier in Milan.