Zainidin Imanaliev illustrates an older performance tradition of art of Kyrgyz komuz - the virtuoso soloist who is at once master instrumentalist, singer, and entertainer. ...

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An authentic dance of Mohiniso Majitova born into an artist family in Bukhara, her grandmother is Olia Hanum, the performer from an old Bukharan family of singers and dancers. In her interview Mohiniso Majitova says that she learned dancing from her grandmother, visiting local celebrations and international concerts. Mohiniso works as a nurse in local hospital, but a need to dance is ...

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Nobovar was born in Komsomolobod in the Rasht valley of Tajikistan. His parents are orinally from Dehrushan village of Rushan District of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, in the Pamirs. Himself being a Rushani speaker (one of the many Pamiri languages), he sings mostly in Tajiki and Rushani. ...

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Badakhshani music and dance represent a distinct cultural practice within Central Asia that has been shaped by the combined forces of geography, history, language, and religion. In Tajik Badakhshan, where the majestic Pamirs reach heights only slightly lower than those of the Himalayas, rugged terrain has impeded contact between Pamiri peoples and inhabitants of other regions of Central Asia. One consequence of ...

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Mashallah Bameri, Balochi musician from Southeren Iran (1950-2011) Bameri showed interest in music when he was only eight and began to learn doholak (a kind of regional drum). He also liked singing and used to sing in the well-known regional ceremonies. ...

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Hamid Khezri, dotar player and singer, is renowned as a versatile musician equally at home in a wide range of musical styles ranging from the folk music of his North Khorassan home, the Sufi music of the South Khorassan deserts and the troubadour traditions of the mountains of North Khorassan to original compositions and a variety of cross-over projects. Whether as a ...

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Mashallah Bameri, Balochi musician from Southeren Iran (1950-2011) Bameri showed interest in music when he was only eight and began to learn doholak (a kind of regional drum). He also liked singing and used to sing in the well-known regional ceremonies. ...

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One of the most interesting phenomenon of Boysun culture is the art of "bakhshi". These are folk artists who perform in the classical Turkic genre of sung improvisation with accompanied by the two-string dombra, a popular music instrument. Bakhshi singing is remarkable, with a very ancient guttural manner of performance that imitates the growling of a predatory animal. There has even been ...

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Komuz player Ruslan Jumabaev (b. 1973), one of the leading instrumentalists of his generation, grew up in a musical family in Naryn, and began playing komuz at the age of six. He is a graduate of Bishkek Conservatory, and has a baccalaureate degree in law. ...

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A living legend in Azerbaijan is Edalat Nasibov, whose improvisational style on the saz, a long-necked lute, is based on the vocal repertory of Azeri bards (ashiq). Strumming on a saz, Nasibov imitates the inflections of a bard's voice. ...

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An Ashik (Azerbaijani: Aşıq, Turkish: Aşık, Persian: عاشیق‎, Armenian: Աշուղ, ashugh, Georgian: აშუღი, English: ashughi, Greek: ασίκης) is a mystic troubadour or travelling bard, in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran、 who sings and plays the saz, a form of lute. Ashiks' songs are semi-improvised around common bases. The word Ashik derives from the Arabic word Asheq (عاشق), and means the "one ...

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Abdurahim Hamidov (1952 - 2013), the great master of Uzbek dutar. Abdurahim Hamidov was born in 1952, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. His ancestors were merchants, his father and grandfather were mullahs. He began learning music at the age of six by singing the entire repertoire of children's songs. A year later he began playing the rabab, a long-necked lute; and at the age of ...

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