Yakhiel Sabzanov

Yakhiel Rafaelovich Sabzanov (Tajik: Якуб Рафаэлович Сабзанов; Russian: Яхиэль Рафаэлович Сабзанов) (February 20, 1929 – September 10, 2013) was a Soviet Bukharian composer of Bukharan Jewish descent. Life Yakhiel Sabzanov, a Bukharian Jew, was born in Dushanbe, and discovered his passion for music as a young boy in the early 1940’s. His first teacher named Nasimjon Pulatov taught him how to play a folk instrument called gidzhak. As Sabzanov became more proficient in gidzhak, he started taking lessons in another folk instrument called tunbura, which is an ancient folk string instrument. His teacher was legendary Shashmakom expert Neryo Aminov, who was a singer and musician. In addition to those instruments, Sabzanov learned how to play a third stringed instrument called Rubabe from the Peoples Artist of Tajikistan Avner Mullokandov. In 1943, Sabzanov entered the music school located in S. Ayni Theater of Opera and Ballet taught by Nadezhda Andreyevna Budkevich, an Honored worker of Arts in Tajikistan. Sabzanov continued to study Gidzhak in Music School and learned under R. Shakhmurov. There he acquired the foundation of performance on a gidzhak. With the help of R. Shakhmurov the y