From Zayton to New York Vol.8 -- Kyrgyz Music from Tradition to Today

This concert invites audiences into the sound world of Kyrgyzstan — a musical tradition shaped by nomadic life, epic storytelling, and the movements of people across land and time. Historically accompanying herding, ritual, and communal gathering, Kyrgyz music continues to evolve through migration and diasporic experience, carrying memory while opening new creative pathways.

Instrumental and vocal traditions convey narrative meaning through timbre, rhythm, and gesture. Central to the repertoire are kuu—instrumental works that evoke landscapes, animals, historical figures, and emotional states. In contemporary performance, these traditions also appear on the modern stage, where the visual expressivity of instruments such as the komuz intersects with deeply rooted musical values.

The program features U.S.-based Kyrgyz musicians:

✨ Aidai Kalmamatova — a leading figure in the revival of the nearly lost jetigen tradition
✨ Aidin Turganbekov — performer of komuz, kyl kiyak, jaw harp, and other traditional instruments
✨ Kasym Moldogazy — a guitarist whose music bridges Kyrgyz melodic thinking and contemporary idioms

The evening will include solo, duo, and trio performances drawn from traditional kuu, vocal works, revived repertoire, and new creations shaped by diasporic experience. Through shifting textures and instrumental combinations, the concert highlights both continuity and transformation — presenting tradition not as something fixed in the past, but as a living, ongoing creative practice.

Join us for an intimate encounter with sound, memory, and cultural resilience.

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Host or Publisher See See Records