Babakulov, Akhmad

Born Jan. 17, 1931, in Dushanbe. Soviet Tadzhik dramatic tenor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1971). Member of the CPSU since 1961.

Babakulov graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he was a student in V. F. Karin’s singing class, in 1954. He completed graduate work at the conservatory in 1962. A soloist with the Tadzhik Theater of Opera and Ballet from 1954 to 1956, he returned to the theater as a soloist in 1966. In the intervening period he was a soloist with the Tadzhik Philharmonic Society. His roles have included Sinodal in Rubinstein’s The Demon, Canio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, Sadyk in Sabzanov’s The Return, Zamon in Urbakh’s The Celebrated Bridegroom, and the title roles in Saifidinov’s Aini and Rudaki.

Babakulov makes concert tours abroad. A teacher as well as a performer, he became head of the subdepartment of voice in the arts department of the Tadzhik Pedagogical Institute in 1966 and a professor in 1977.

Babakulov received the Rudaki State Prize of the Tadzhik SSR in 1966 and has been awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and various medals.