Arif Malikov

Arif Malikov (also Melikov; Baku, 13 September 1933 – Baku, 9 May 2019) was an Azerbaijani composer. He graduated from the Baku Conservatory as a music composer in 1958. He shot to fame in 1961 when his first major composition Legend of Love was staged at the Kirov State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad (present day St Petersburg) and received nationwide acclaim. The ballet has been staged in several countries in Europe and is regarded as one of the finest works emerging from the former Soviet Union.