Tofig Alakbar oglu Guliyev (,; 7 November 1917, Baku – 4 October 2000, Baku) was a Soviet and Azerbaijani composer, pianist, and conductor. Biography Tofig Guliyev was born in Baku, in the family of salary worker. He became a student of the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire when he was 12 years old due to his musical talent. But in 1934, he became a student of Baku Conservatoire, where he studied in two faculties - fortepiano (in professor I.S.Aysberg’s class) and composer (in professor S. G. Strasser’s class). In the conservatoire young Tofig Guliyev familiarized with works of great classics of the past – Bach, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Schubert and other composers. The brilliant talent of Tofig Guliyev drew music communities’ attention to him and soon, in 1936, Azerbaijan’s National Committee of Education sent Tofig Guliyev to Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky on Uzeyir Hajibeyov’s advice and initiative. There he learnt conduct and for some time studied in fortepiano class of professor Neyhauz. Soon he began to work as a pianist at well-known Estrada orchestra of those times under A.Zfasmann’s guidance, where he successfully worked till 1939. Early creativity Tofig Guliyev’s first experiences on poems began in the beginning of the 1930s. In 1931, being the student at the Asaf Zeynally Music School in Baku, Tofig Guliyev wrote a song to Mirza Alakbar Sabir’s poem – “About a schoolboy” according to his teacher’s advice. Beginning from 1935, Tofig Guliyev began to work as a conductor at Azerbaijan Drama Theatre named after Mashadi Azizbeyov. Tofig Guliyev’s activity as folklorist, which was begun in the 1930s had a great importance not only in creative biography of the composer, but also in musical-social life of Azerbaijan. Tofig Guliyev was one of the creative personalities, who had great services to development and popularization of Azerbaijani folklore. He is one of the first composers of Azerbaijan, who accomplished note records of mugham. In 1936, mugham recordings “Rast”, “Segah”, “Zabul”, “Dugah” were released by him (jointly with composer Z. Bagirov). In 1939, returning to Baku, Tofig Guliyev engaged in with organizational work for establishment of national orchestra, the active work of which concurred with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941. The Estrada orchestra, which was established by the composer and called Red Army ensemble was allotted to 402nd infantry division and had concerts in front line during the war. Tofig Guliyev wrote many patriotic songs