Enver Bakirov (1920–2001) was a Soviet and Russian composer. He was born and died in Kazan. He wrote in a wide range of genres, including songs, ballet, opera, musical comedy, orchestral music, choral works and music for dramatic productions.
Bakirov graduated from the Kazan Music College in 1940, where he studied violin with Ilyas Aukhadeev and composition with Yuri Vinogradov. He later completed the composition course of Albert Lehman at the Kazan State Conservatory in 1952. From 1951 to 1956 he taught at the Kazan Music College, and in 1956–1957 he headed the literary department of the Musa Jalil Tatar Opera and Ballet Theatre.
In 1958 Bakirov established and opened Music School No. 1 in Yelabuga, which now bears his name. Between 1957 and 1970 he worked at children’s music schools in Kazan and Yelabuga and led amateur arts ensembles in Kazan, Menzelinsk and Naberezhnye Chelny. Music School No. 6 in Kazan was also named after him.
His creative career is conventionally dated from the 1937 song “Morning Serenade,” to words by Khay Vakhit and first performed by Niyaz Dautov. The song became one of his most popular works. Bakirov wrote more than 200 songs, as well as such works as the 1947 Sonatina for Cello and Piano, the cantata for chorus and two soloists (1952), the musical comedies “Melody of the Talyanka” (1962) and “The First Torch” (1970), the opera “Gulzada” (1968), and the ceremonial overture “KamAZ” for symphony orchestra (1972).
Among his principal works was the 1957 ballet “The Golden Comb,” revised in 1971 as “The Water Spirit,” after Gabdulla Tukay’s tale of the same name. It became one of the most popular Tatar ballets. Bakirov and Akhmet Iskhak completed the opera “Tukay” in 1982; although it was accepted for production by the Ministry of Culture of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, it was not staged, and its arias were performed only in concert.
Bakirov received the Medal for Distinguished Labour in 1957, was named Honoured Artist of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1969, received the Gabdulla Tukay State Prize of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1973, became an Honoured Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1981, and was named People’s Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan in 1993.