Farhod Halimov is a singer, ghijak (spike fiddle) player, tanbur (long-necked lute) player, and composer of Tajik descent who performs music from the maqom tradition of Samarkand and Bukhara. He studied ghijak at the Sadriddin Ayni Pedagogical Institute in Samarkand, and formed a traditional ensemble towards the end of his studies there. Later, he began singing and playing the tanbur, the preferred instrument for accompanying the lyrical art songs of the maqom repertory among Tajik and Uzbek classical singers. His personal style evolved not through the personal mentoring of an ostad, but by listening carefully to recordings of master musicians of an earlier era, in particular Rasul Qôri Mamadaliev (1928-1976) and Khoja Abdulaziz Abdurasulov (1851-1936). In the 1990s,

Farhod Halimov won prizes in a series of music competitions, including first prize in a 1996 competition for blind instrumentalists. Following this recognition, he was given the honorific title “Qori,” which was traditionally bestowed on great singers who were blind (Qôri literally means Qur’an reciter). Farhod has composed numerous classical songs to poetic texts in Tajik and Uzbek, and is held in the highest esteem by performers and musical connoisseurs of Tajik and Uzbek classical music. His performance style recalls music from the pre-Soviet era, before Soviet cultural policies altered the tuning systems of Central Asian instruments to conform to European conventions.

Collaborating with ethnomusicologists from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan as well as Europe, Farhod has recorded CDs released by Ocora Radio France (Chants Classiques Tadjiks), Mahoor (Persian Song in Samarqand), and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Uzbekistan. Despite his renown among musical connoisseurs, however, Farhod Halimov currently teaches computer science and computer systems at a school for the visually impaired.