Murad Kazhlayev

Murad Magomedovich Kazhlayev (15 January 193123 December 2023) was a Russian and Lak composer and conductor. He was a People’s Artist of the USSR (1981), (2016), and laureate of international premiums and contests. He was also Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the , a professor and academician at Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. Biography Murad Kajlayev was born on 15 January 1931 in Baku to a Lak family. He graduated from Baku State Conservatoire from the composition class of . He was expelled from there for his ardour for practicing non-academic musical genres but soon he was reclaimed. He worked as a teacher at a musical school named after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in Makhachkala, as a chief conductor of the Dagestan Radio Symphonic Orchestra (1957–1958), artistic director of the Dagestan Philharmonic Hall (1963–1964) and secretary of administration of the Union of Soviet Composers (from 1968). Awards * Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation (2021) * Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1960) * People’s Artist of the USSR (1981) * Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1971) * Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” of the III and IV degrees (2008, 1995) * Order of Friendship (201