Shakhberdyeva, Maiia

Shakhberdyeva, Maiia 

(Medeniet Shakhberdyeva). Born Feb. 23, 1930, in the city of Kerki, Turkmen SSR. Soviet Turkmen singer (coloratura soprano). People’s Artist of the USSR (1975).

In 1956, Shakhberdyeva graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied voice under V. F. Rozhdestvenskaia. Beginning in 1962 she studied under M. E. Donets-Tesseir in Kiev. In 1956, Shakhberdyeva became a soloist in the Turkmen Theater of Opera and Ballet.

Shakhberdyeva possesses an expressive voice of equal quality in all registers. Her roles have included the Snow Maiden and Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden and The Tsar’s Bride, Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, the title role in Delibes’ Lakmé, Ailar in V. Mukhatov’s The Bloody Watershed, Aknabat in Agadzhikov’s Night of Alarm, and Shasenem in Ovezov and Shaposhnikov’s Shasenem and Garib.

Shakhberdyeva also performs in concert. She has toured in the German Democratic Republic, Poland, India, and Canada. In 1975 she began teaching at the Ashkhabad Institute of the Arts. Shakhberdyeva was a deputy to the sixth and seventh convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR.