Shahidi Foundation

Music and scholarship

Shahidi Foundation

The maqam, inside the symphony.

Programmes

Ziyodullo Shahidi set the classical maqams inside the symphony. The Foundation takes that music into study and performance through work on scores and scholarship.

  1. Shahidi's first opera, Komde & Madan, brings Bedil's poem to the stage.

  2. Ziyodullo Shahidi writes the Symphony of Maqams, drawing on Shashmaqom themes.

  3. Munira Shahidi founds the Foundation during Tajikistan's civil war.

Foundation

Music. Memory. Dialogue.

From Ziyodullo Shahidi's transformation of maqam into symphonic thought to Munira Shahidi's lifelong dialogue between East and West, the Foundation preserves a cultural inheritance by keeping it in motion.

  • Black-and-white studio portrait of Ziyodullo Shahidi in a dark suit, his chin resting on his hand.

    1914–1985

    Ziyodullo Shahidi

    Composer, innovator and architect of modern Tajik symphonic music

    Ziyodullo Shahidi
  • Colour portrait of Munira Shahidi, her chin resting on her hand, beside a sculpted bronze head with a green patina.

    1943–2026

    Munira Shahidi

    Scholar, cultural bridge-builder, founder and guardian of memory

    Munira Shahidi
Black-and-white photograph of Ziyodullo Shahidi, holding his glasses, and Munira Shahidi, smiling, at a polished table with a large open book between them.
Ziyodullo and Munira Shahidi with an open book.

Stories

Stories from the Shahidi House

Shahnameh by lamplight

One evening Ziyodullo read the story of Rustam and Sohrab from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, using his hands to cast shadow figures on the wall. When Munira wanted the story to go on, he told her that a good story, like music, must unfold slowly.

From the family archive · Echoes of Chiaroscuro

Stories

Programmes

Scores for study and performance

The Foundation's programme joins work on critical editions and new commissions with teaching. Residency and salon give composers and scholars time for work and discussion. Archive research returns to the source material.

  1. Editions

    The editions programme prepares numbered critical scores and monographs for musicians and researchers to use in performance and study.

  2. Commissions

    Commissions connect composers with cultural partners to develop new scores for performers.

  3. Residency & Salon

    Residency gives composers and scholars time for focused work at the Samarkand residence; the salon brings that work into conversation.

  4. Archive & Scholarship

    Archive and scholarship connects the study of manuscripts and recordings with scores, helping musicians and researchers examine the sources of a work.

  5. Teaching

    Teaching brings musical practice and scholarship together through masterclasses for students and musicians.

Programmes

People

Meet Ziyodullo Shahidi, Munira Shahidi, Farangis Nurulla-Khoja and Nargis Nurulla-Khoja.

  1. Ziyodullo Shahidi

    1914–1985composer, founder of Tajik symphonic music.

  2. Munira Shahidi

    1943–2026orientalist, founder of the Foundation in 1992 and the journal Fonus.

  3. Nargis Nurulla-Khoja

    Historian.

  4. Farangis Nurulla-Khoja

    Composer.

Dushanbe and Samarkand

The composer's house in Dushanbe is home to the public Ziyodullo Shahidi museum. The family residence in Samarkand gives the residency and salon programme its setting.

  1. Dushanbe

    The composer's house in Dushanbe

    The Ziyodullo Shahidi museum occupies the composer's house in Dushanbe. It is a public museum. Contact the Foundation about visiting arrangements.

  2. Samarkand

    The family residence in Samarkand

    The family residence in Samarkand is the setting for the Foundation's residency and salon programme. The residence is private and not open to visitors.