Merzie Khalitova: Symphony No. 3 “Dedication”

Merzie Khalitova (b. 1956) is an Uzbekistan-born Ukrainian composer of Crimean Tatar origin. Her mother taught geography and her father was an economic planner. In 1982 she graduated from the Tashkent State Conservatory of Music in the class of composition by Mirsadik Tadzhiyev and Georgiy Mushel. Upon graduation she taught composition at the Special Music School of the Conservatory. Khalitova joined the Union of Composers of the USSR in 1986) and became a member of the Union of Composers of Ukraine in 1993 upon moving to to her homeland, Crimea, where she has taught composition at the Simferopol Music Academy and worked as a music editor at the Crimea Television and Radio Company. At present, she is an associate professor of musical art at the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University. She has prepared a number of programs about the history of folk instruments, works of famous musicians such as Yaya Sherfedinov, Ilyas Bakhshish, and Eden Nalbandov. Khalitova has participated in many international festivals and has received numerous musical accolades including the AR Crimea Prize (2000), the N. V. Lysenko Prize (2003), the Boris Lyatoshinsky Prize (2014).

Symphony No. 3 ‘Dedication’ is a densely-scored orchestral work inspired by Crimean folk music.