Mahmudjon G'ofurov

Master of Uzbek art, Mahmudjon G‘ofurov, was born in Tashkent in 1917 and lived a long and meaningful life as a symbol of purity and honesty in life and art.

«My father died when I was young,» Mahmudjon aka used to say. «I was raised by my mother. That is why I started school a bit late. Starting in 1927, I studied in the Arabic alphabet at the Hofiza school in Oxunguzar. In 1935, I studied at the Lohuti Technical College in Balamachit, graduating in 1939. The poet and playwright Turob To‘la also studied with us at that college.

I have been used to labor since my youth. I did farming from the age of ten. We had a large plot of land in the Changalzor area. I planted melons, watermelons, potatoes, onions, and sunflowers on one hectare of land. I built houses; I built mud walls. We had a cow. I never shied away from hard labor.

From 1935 to 1940, I worked as a choir artist for the Uzbekistan Radio Committee. We organized the radio choir. In 1937, we participated in the Soviet Union Radio Committee’s choir festival in Moscow and brought back the first-place prize.

In 1938, I received a letter of appreciation for my work in the Uzbek choir. From May 1939, I began working as an actor at the Muqimiy Uzbek State Musical Theater, and gradually I began to find my place in theatrical art.»

Mahmudjon G‘ofurov was a man of refined nature, who had mastered the literary language perfectly; he was soft-spoken, always well-groomed, neat and tidy, and impeccably dressed. Even at the age of eighty, he was a tall, handsome, and highly cultured person. For his great services to the development of Uzbek theatrical art, he was awarded the title of «People's Artist of Uzbekistan» in 1940, as well as a number of orders and medals; in the years of independence, he was awarded the «Labor Glory» (Mehnat shuhrati) order.

Mahmudjon G‘ofurov passed away in 2000.