Event focuses on shashmaqam music in New York

January 25, 2012

New York hosted a series of events to popularize shashmaqam, a unique genre of Uzbek music, as part of “Shashmaqam Forever” festival organized by the Fund Forum, the General Consulate of Uzbekistan in New York, the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and the Congress of Bukharian Jews. The festival included a concert by maqam singers from Uzbekistan at Carnegie Hall as well as an international conference titled Shashmaqam in the 21st Century.

The concert was attended by around 300 people, including New York City officials, members of the diplomatic corps, international organizations, the business community and Uzbek diaspora.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Turgun in Uzbekistan, and I’m happy that today we have the opportunity to listen to his works in New York,” said prominent American ethnomusicologist Professor Theodore Levin of Dartmouth College (US), speaking before those gathered.

The event featured outstanding performances by singers and musicians of a challenging program that included various types of shashmaqam and instrumental fragments from the repertoire of Alimatov.

The instrumentalists from Uzbekistan who performed at the event included the sons of Turgun Alimatov, Alisher and Valisher Alimatov, his grandson Abror Zufarov who sang along with their American colleagues Avrom Tolmasov, Ezro Malakov, Roshel Rubinov, Shumiel Tolmasov, Rafael Badalbayev, Roman Tolmasov, Abduraim Hamidov and Osher Barayev.

The concert was followed the next day by an international conference titled “Shashmaqam in the 21st Century”, timed to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the eminent Uzbek musician Turgun Alimatov (1922-2008). The conference brought together leading scientists and specialists such as Professor Levin, Professor Matyoqubov of the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan and Professor Rapport of New York University.

The conference focused on the potential of shashmaqam music, problems of its development and popularization in the US as well as its prospects in the 21st century, with some talking about the importance of shashmaqam in the culture of nations living in Uzbekistan as well as about Alimatov’s contributions. One of the highlights of the conference was the decision to annually organize similar events aimed at popularizing and studying shashmaqam in the United States.