[2][3] He composed the first oriental opera Leyli and Majnun in 1908 and since then he is revered for adapting the written masterpiece to the theatre.

And the fact that Hajibeyov grew up in Shusha explains how at 22, in 1908, with very little formal musical education, he was capable of writing a full-length opera.

[10] Here, with the help of his favorite teacher Mirza Mehdi Hasanzadeh, he familiarized himself with the heritage of the famous classic writers of the East and the West.

Uzeyir Hajibeyov's first teacher was his uncle Aghalar Aliverdibeyov, an excellent connoisseur of Azeri folk music.

After his graduation from the Pedagogical Seminary, Uzeyir Hajibeyov was appointed a teacher to the village of Hadrut in Upper Karabakh.

Having worked there for a year, Hajibeyov permanently settled in Baku, where he carried on his career in teaching mathematics, geography, history, Azerbaijani and Russian languages, and music.

For example, between 1920 and 1940, the alphabet systems for writing Azerbaijani were changed three times — from Arabic to Latin, and from Latin to Cyrillic[13] — a process which greatly hindered and interrupted the educational and cultural process, and may well have been one of the factors influencing Uzeyir Hajibeyov to present his ideas verbally on the musical stage.

Conversely, when Russian-influenced musicians tried to ban traditional Azerbaijani instruments like the tar, zurna and kamancha, Hajibeyov and his colleagues pushed to incorporate them into the Western orchestra, thereby, giving them an even higher status and ultimately a chance to survive.

Uzeyir Hajibeyov in the field of music education combined and created in Azerbaijan Western and East traditions.

In 1908, Hajibeyov wrote his first opera, Leyli and Majnun, based on the tragic love story[14] by the 15th century poet Fuzûlî.

It is said that when the opera was performed, many people were offended and walked out, leaving Hajibeyov with the realization that he had outpaced his generation too much this time.

[16][17] In contrast to Sheikh Sanan, Hajibeyov's operas Rustam and Sohrab (1910), Asli and Karam (1912), Shah Abbas and Khurshid Banu (1912), and Harun and Leyli (1915) were entirely based on Azerbaijani folk music elements, primarily mugham.

[15] In October 2006, the musical comedy Arshin Mal Alan ("The Cloth Peddler") by Uzeyir Hajibeyov, written in 1914,[18] was announced to be performed on western stages for the first time.

The school has trained Azerbaijan's finest composers such as Gara Garayev, Fikrat Amirov, Jovdat Hajiyev, Soltan Hajibeyov, Tofig Guliyev, and Vagif Mustafazade.

His statue sits in front of this grand building that is still devoted to the synthesizing Eastern and Western musical traditions.

[22]In 1931, Hajibeyov helped in establishing the Azeri Folk Instruments Orchestra affiliated with the Radio Committee.

This orchestra performed European classical pieces, such as those by Mikhail Glinka, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Georges Bizet and others.

Hajibeyov devoted much energy to the idea of integrating woman's role and status into the male-dominated world.

Hajibeyov wrote with his brother Jeyhun Hajibeyli this libretto of the opera based on a poem of the same name written by Fuzuli.

Then, these people - Sidghi Ruhulla, Khanlar Hakhverdiev, Aliovsat Sadigov, Shirzad Huseynov, Gulagha Mammadov, Mais Salmanov, Gulu Asgerov, Bakir Hashimov, Ali Mehdiyev, Arif Babayev, Baba Mirzaev, Janali Akbarov, Safa Gahramanov, Alim Gasimov and Mansum Ibrahimov performed in a role of Majnun at the next performance.

In this opera, Hajibeyov created arias, mass choral scenes, various ensembles, ballet numbers and recitatives.

“Mən nə qədər qoca olsam da” song and “Uzundere” national folk music are sounded in this opera with some changes on it.

In 1945, he published the book entitled Principles of Azerbaijan Folk Music, which has been translated into several languages including English in 1985 devoted to the centenary of his birth.

[35] In 2008, the National Bank of Azerbaijan minted a 100 manat gold commemorative coin dedicated to Hajibeyov's memory.