Salikh Zamaletdinovich Saydashev

Salikh Zamaletdinovich Saydashev was a Soviet and Tatar composer, one of the founders of Tatar professional music. At the age of 13 he began performing as a musician with the Tatar theatrical troupe "Sayar", which later became the basis of the Galiaskar Kamal Tatar Theater. Saydashev accompanied performances on the piano and played in the orchestra, and he arranged Tatar folk songs on his own.

In 1918 Saydashev formed his own orchestra, and in 1922 he became conductor and musical director of the Kamal Theater. He wrote music for numerous plays by Tatar playwrights. In 1930 Saydashev began working as a music editor at the first Kazan radio station. During three years of work he organized broadcasts in two languages, introduced music from various peoples to the air, and formed a choir. In the mid-1930s Salikh Saydashev worked in Moscow and enrolled in the Moscow Conservatory. For four years he composed songs, marches and other works. Salikh Zamaletdinovich Saydashev died in Moscow in 1954 and was buried in the Novo-Tatar Cemetery in Kazan.