Aga Khan Music Programme was established by Karim Aga Khan with the aim of supporting outstanding musicians and music teachers in preserving and communicating their musical heritage, developing it in contemporary forms and disseminating it worldwide through concerts and recordings. The programme initiates and implements country-specific action programmes to support the revitalisation and preservation of cultural heritage. Under this premise, special programme series in which outstanding renowned artists present new compositions, improvisations and arrangements of a repertoire strongly inspired by the respective tradition are developed, among other things. The programmes always represent artistic encounters between time-honoured traditions and contemporary forms, as a new generation of top-class musicians further develops and varies old musical traditions. The encounter of different cultures thus gives rise to a unique musical creativity.
The Aga Khan Music Programme strives with top-class musicians from the Near and Far East, Africa and the countries of the former Soviet Union to preserve the rich and varied heritage of classical music traditions from around the world and introduce them in Europe. From 15th to 17th February 2019, the Aga Khan Music Programme visited Germany for the first time, presenting the multi-faceted classical music of the Silk Road in four concerts at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, including a school concert. Renowned musicians, such as the Chinese pipa player Wu Ma, the Syrian composer and musician Basel Rajoub or Dutar and tanbur player Sirojiddin Juraev, combined music traditions of their countries with improvisation and borrowings from the Western jazz tradition in their performances. The multimedia concert Qyrq Qyz – Forty Girls reflected both musically and figuratively a centuries-old saga of Central Asia that could possibly change the Western view of women’s images of the East.
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„Es ist nachhaltig beeindruckend zu sehen, welch schwindelerregend intellektuelle Leistungen klassischen Musikern in der Türkei, in Thailand und Java abverlangt werden.”
Michael Church, Old and New Music from the Ends of the Silk Route, 2016, 2
„Ein musikalisch hoch eindrucksvoller Abend, nicht zuletzt, um sich über das Fremde im Anderen und im eigenen Wesen klarzuwerden”
Eva-Maria Reuther im Volksfreund, 12.08.2019
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PAST PROJECTS – A SELECTION
15. – 17. Februar 2019, Konzerthaus Dortmund
TIME ISLAND – TRADITION AND REINVENTION
From February 15 to 17, 2019, artists from the Aga Khan Music Programme performed in Germany for the first time. At the Konzerthaus Dortmund, they presented four concerts—including a school concert—showcasing the richly diverse classical music of the Silk Road.
NEW MUSIC FROM BOTH ENDS OF THE SILK ROAD
Wu Man, pipa / Basel Rajoub, saxophone, duclar / Sirojiddin Juraev, dutar, tanbur / Feras Charestan, kanun / Andrea Piccioni, percussion
The vast network of the Silk Road stands not only for vibrant trade but also for a virtuosic instrumental and vocal repertoire. The musicians around pipa player Wu Man aim to ensure that these ancient musical traditions from their homelands are not forgotten. They preserve them as a constant source of orientation, while breathing new life into this heritage through contemporary sonic influences.
QYRQ QYZ – FORTY GIRLS
Raushan Orazbaeva, musical direction, kyl kobiz / Gumisay Berdikhanova, vocals, girjek / Gumshagul Bekturganova, vocals, dutar / Aziza Davronova, vocals, dutar, percussion / Tokzhan Karatai, vocals, kyl kobiz / Makhabat Kobogonova, vocals, kyl-kiyak, choor / Chopo-choor, harp / Arailym Omirbekova, vocals, dombyra / Saltanat Yersultan, vocals, jetigen / Alibek Kabdurakhmanov, percussion, chang / Saodat Ismailova, film and staging / Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, composer
Unique within Central Asian heroic epics is the legend of the “Qyrq Qyz”—the forty girls who defended their Turkic tribe against attacks. In a multimedia concert, their story is brought to the stage of the Konzerthaus through film sequences, traditional instruments, and the powerful singing of the female musicians.
“The three-day “Time Island: Sound of the Silk Road” was like a short getaway into a distant, unfamiliar world.”
Ruhrnachrichten, 18 February 2019
11 August 2019, Mosel Musikfestival
NEW MUSIC FROM BOTH ENDS OF THE SILK ROAD
Wu Man, pipa / Feras Charestan, qanun / Sirojiddin Juraev, dutar & tanbur / Basel Rajoub, duclar & soprano saxophone / Abbos Kosimov, doira
With the program New Music from Both Ends of the Silk Road, artists from China, Syria, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan brought together Western and Eastern, old and new traditions at the Mosel Music Festival 2019, transcending genres and styles. A unique combination of instruments showcased the rich sound spectrum of the Arabic box zither qanun, the Persian long-necked lute tanbur, the Central Asian pipa, and other rare and fascinating instruments.
