August 20 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Khan Shushinsky (Isfandiyar Aslan oglu Javanshir), a coryphaeus of Azerbaijani mugham art and People’s Artist.
Sea-news.az reports that the great vocalist, born in Shusha in 1901 into a family belonging to the lineage of Karabakh khans, enriched our national musical treasury with his unique performance style and compositions.
At the age of 16, during a gathering attended by his master Islam Abdullayev, he performed the Kurd-Shahnaz mugham in the style of Tabriz vocalist Abulhasan Khan Iqbal so remarkably that his teacher bestowed upon him the name “Khan Shushinsky.” Jabbar Garyagdioglu and Seyid Shushinsky also played a major role in his development as an artist.
He gave his first official performance in Baku in 1923 at the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall. In 1934, he was awarded 1st prize at the 1st Art Olympiad of Transcaucasian Peoples in Tbilisi. One year after being named a People’s Artist in 1943, he went on a tour to Iran at the invitation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, giving concerts in four cities.
His authored songs Shushanin daglari (The Mountains of Shusha) and Gamerim became household favorites. The only composer’s work he performed outside his own was Uzeyir Hajibeyov’s Gara goz (Black Eyes), of which he was the first and unforgettable interpreter. In 1960, he established the “Mugham Studio” under the Philharmonic and nurtured a new generation of vocalists at the Asaf Zeynally Music College.
Only 240 minutes of tape recordings remain as a legacy to future generations from this legendary figure in Azerbaijani musical history. Khan Shushinsky passed away on March 18, 1979, and was interred in the Second Alley of Honor.
