Ilaha Gismat (Ilaha Ismat gizi Israfilova) was born in 1993 in the city of Baku. She received her initial general and musical education at the Bulbul Specialised Secondary Music School, and later graduated with honours from both the bachelor's and master's programmes of the composition faculty of the Uzeyir Hajibeyli Baku Academy of Music. In composition she studied under the outstanding figure, People's Artist, professor and brilliant composer Arif Malikov, and under Honoured Art Worker Aydin Azimov, head of the Composition Faculty at the Baku Academy of Music. In 2017, with the support of the world-renowned composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, she was accepted into the membership of the Azerbaijan Union of Composers, where she currently heads the "Work with Youth" section. Currently a doctoral student at the Baku Academy of Music, I. Gismat has since 2017 also chaired the "Support for the Development of Cultural Ties" Public Union, which she co-founded with People's Artist Zumrud Mammadova. A laureate of national and international competitions and the author of numerous projects, the young composer was awarded the "Youth Prize" of the Ministry of Youth and Sport and the "Creative Youth" prize of the Ministry of Culture in 2019.
