Rock Paper Scissors - Music and Voices of Central Asia (Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia) - Central Asian music ensemble dazzles local audience.

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Sample Track 1:
"Kyiylyp Turam (I'm Sad to Say Goodbye)" from Tengir-Too, Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan (Music and Voices of Central Asia)

Sample Track 2:
"Excerpt from 'Manas' Epic" from Tengir-Too, Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan (Music and Voices of Central Asia)

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Tengir-Too, Mountain Music of Kyrgyzstan (Music and Voices of Central Asia)

Central Asian music ensemble dazzles local audience.

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Houston Community Newspaper, Central Asian music ensemble dazzles local audience. >>

The audience was mesmerized by the virtuosity of the musicians, the voices of the singers and the poetic stanzas set to melody...a veritable feast for the senses. It was appropriate that musicians represented this region; not only did the music offer the opportunity to reflect on ancient connections, but in Central Asian tradition, musicians hold revered positions as ambassadors and leaders. The event was hosted by the Aga Khan Council for USA.
Almost a thousand people gathered to hear Tengir-Too, a group from Kyrgyzstan, in their traditional clothes and stove-pipe hats, play instruments as diverse as jew's harps, komuz (lute), choor (flute) and kyl kiyak (an upright bow fiddle).
Singing from their folk narrative, the Manas, at 500,000 lines, perhaps the world's longest epic poem, and songs ranging from praise for Attila the Hun to images of flowers and nightingales from Sufi literature, this was perhaps most different from those more accustomed to western tonalities. But it was exhilarating nonetheless.
Two Afghan performers, who now live in California, Homayun Sakhi and Taryalai Hashimi played the rubab (double-chambered lute) and the tabla respectively, with such flair and intensity that the audience could barely sit still. This was followed by a group from Tajikistan that is reviving the ancient traditions from Samarkand and Bukhara in the Academy of Maqam, playing instruments such as the sato (long-necked lute), duyra (frame drum) and dutar (long-necked fretted lute) as female vocalists sang songs based on poetry by Hafez, the great 14th century Persian poet.
This program was part of the tour, presented and curated by the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
The group came to Houston en route to Texas A & M University and will travel to Albuquerque and Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. For more information, visit www.akdn.org/Music/ Musicin.htm.
04/03/06 >> go there

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