DUSHANBE, March 31, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajik performer Khurshed Ibrohimov has won a special prize of 1,000 euros at the international competition “The World of Mugam” that was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on March 21-26, the director of the Academy of Maqom of Tajikistan Abduvali Abdurashidov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, Khurshed Ibrohimov won the special prize for the best performance of Azeri mugam, Karabakh Shikastasi. Another performer from the Academy of Maqom, Jamshed Ergashev, also received the competition diploma, Abdurashidov said.
“The first international mugam contest was organized by Mrs. Mehrban Aliyeva, the First Lady of Azerbaijan, under financial support of the UNECO and performers from 35 countries, including Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkey, Germany, Syria and others, took part in the competition,” the Academy director said.
Mugam is one of the many musical traditions of Azerbaijan. It is a highly complex form of art music with specific systems and concepts of musical expression that demand of its performers a very high standard of professionalism. Mugam belongs to the system of modal music and has close ties to the Persian musical tradition. It is therefore meta-ethnical, because it is not restricted to one particular region but covers a wide area of the Middle and Far East. The Uighurs in Xinjian call this musical development muqam, the Tajiks and Uzbeks call it maqom (or shasmaqom), while Arabs and Persians call it maqam or dastgah.
Abduvali Abdurashidov, who is a leading music scholar and celebrated performer of Tajik-Uzbek classical music (Shashmaqom), founded the Academy of Maqom of Tajikistan in 2003 under sponsorship of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia (AKMICA).
The Academy offers comprehensive training to highly qualified students in historical, theoretical, and practical elements of Shashmaqom. Students who qualify for graduation earn a diploma validated by Tajikistan’s Ministry of Education. The Academy’s curriculum includes fifteen different subjects ranging from vocal technique, performance on musical instruments and music theory, to the history of world religions, analysis of classical poetry, and Persian language. Students in the Academy are active participants in the AKMICA’s Touring Program.
The Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia (AKMICA), a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, was created in 2000 with the aim of assisting in the preservation of Central Asia’s musical heritage by ensuring its transmission to a new generation of artists and audiences, both inside the region and beyond its borders.
