Aygun Samadzade was born on 11 January 1967 in Baku into a family of intellectuals. She received her first education at the Bulbul Secondary Specialized Music School, graduating in 1985 with a gold medal and a personal scholarship. That same year she entered the History and Theory Faculty of the Azerbaijan State Conservatoire (now the Baku Music Academy), taking part in and winning a number of republican and all-union scientific conferences and competitions. She was awarded a diploma at the competition marking the 100th anniversary of Uzeyir Hajibayov''s birth, a gold medal for the best student research paper at the 3rd republican scientific conference, and a first-degree diploma at a competition held among the Transcaucasian countries. After graduating from the conservatoire with distinction and receiving the Hajibayov personal scholarship, she began teaching that same year at the Department of Music History, lecturing on the history of European music, the musical culture of Turkic peoples and music criticism, and served as an associate professor of that department (1990-2016). Composer and musicologist Aygun Samadzade has been a member of the Azerbaijan Composers'' Union since 2003. In 2003 Aygun Samadzade defended her candidate dissertation on the work of the great Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun. She is also the author of a number of scholarly and journalistic articles on the history of Azerbaijani music, including "The Role of Patronage of the Arts in Azerbaijan", "Khurshidbanu Natavan and Azerbaijani Culture", "Shah Ismail Khatai and Azerbaijani Culture", "Mir Movsum Navvab", "Haji Zeynalabdin Taghiyev''s Services to the Development of Our Culture" and "Certain Stylistic Features of Adnan Saygun''s Work". Aygun Samadzade has written more than 200 songs that occupy a special place in the repertoire of many well-known singers. Many of these works are collected in the albums "Let Us Treat This World as a Tale", "Ahmad Javad", the four-disc album "Azerbaijan" and the album "Songs of the Motherland". Aygun Samadzade has also composed music for a number of theatre productions and films. She wrote the scores for Elchin Afandiyev''s plays "The Killer" and "Shakespeare", Huseyn Javid''s "Amir Teymur" and "Iblis", Ilgar Fahmi''s "It Is I, I...", Stefan Zweig''s "Letter from an Unknown Woman", and the films "Side Effect", "Secret" and "The Last Stop". Aygun Samadzade is the author of the symphonic tableaux Turkestan, Longing, Sandy Beach and Love, of the vocal-choreographic composition Hazrat-i Fatima, and of the March of Independence dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Republic. During the war she composed a cycle of songs including Diaspora March, My Dear Azerbaijan, Song of Victory and My Hero. Among the composer''s most recent achievements is the project AN END TO LONGING, dedicated to our victory in the Second Karabakh War. Notably, the video of the work was filmed in the liberated territories, making it one of the notable initiatives to convey Armenian vandalism to the world through the language of art. Aygun Samadzade has created a cycle of works to the words of Ahmad Javad. These include the cantata Ey Turk (made up of the independent numbers Ey Turk, Bismillah, To the Turkish Army, Banner of the People, I Have Found, I Will Not Be Silent and To the Martyrs), the vocal-instrumental composition Do Not Cry, and the romances Why Didn''t You Come? and My Sacrifice, among others. These works premiered in Ankara on 15 September 2018, in Baku on 10 November 2018, and in Eskisehir on 20 March 2019. They have been performed by the Turkish Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the TRT Choir and the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra. At the 2000 "Best of Best" competition her song School Years won first place, and at the 2002 "Song of Songs" competition-festival her songs Let Us Treat This World as a Tale and Rain took first place, while My Mulberry Tree won the Grand Prix and the Audience Favourite award. In 2008 her song Strike for Victory, submitted to the song competition on the theme of "Sport and the Olympics" jointly announced by the National Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Azerbaijan Composers'' Union, won first place. The composer has given author concerts at the Heydar Aliyev Palace in 2005, 2009 and 2015, at the International Mugham Centre in 2015, at the "Silk Road" International Music Festival held in Sheki in 2017, and at the Green Theatre on 9 June 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic. Aygun Samadzade has been the creator and head of a number of television projects promoting Azerbaijani culture, including the programmes "It''s Actually Me", "The Story of a Song", "Introduction" and "Impromptu". In 2019 she was the creator and project head of the piano score "Azerbaijan in 100 Songs", a collection of songs about the Motherland by Azerbaijani composers. Aygun Samadzade has headed the NAFAS Art Centre since 2012. On 15 September 2011 she was awarded the honorary title of Honoured Art Worker of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and on 27 May 2018 the honorary title of People''s Artist of Azerbaijan. On 17 May 2025 Aygun Samadzade was appointed director of the Fikrat Amirov Ganja State Philharmonic Hall.
