ASTANA – Turan, an ethno-folk ensemble from Kazakhstan, is giving concerts in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Hungary on its 15th anniversary as part of the European tour this month, according to the ensemble’s announcement on Instagram.
Zhantu Dadabayev, Baurzhan Bekmukhanbetov, Yerzhigit Aliyev, Serik Nurmolda, and Maksat Medeubek. Photo credit: Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Sports.
Supported by the Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Sports, the five-member group of Maksat Medeubek, Baurzhan Bekmukhanbetov, Zhantu Dadabayev, Serik Nurmolda, and Yerzhigit Aliyev will conduct a series of concerts from March 31 to April 14.
The spring tour began in the Swiss city of Basel on March 31. Organized by the Basel Infinity Festival, a platform for cross-genre music performed by top-class national and international artists, the event gathered with full attendance representatives of the country’s government structures, academic and business circles, as well as the Kazakh diaspora in Switzerland.
Turan artists playing on Kazakh traditional musical instruments in Basel. Photo credit: Kazakh Embassy in Bern.
Two weeks ago, as part of the Nauryz celebration from March 21 to March 23, the band performed at the University of the District of Columbia and at the George Washington University in the U.S. capital, where the band, in addition to live music, held lectures for the U.S. and Japanese scientists about the Kazakh folk art and the origin of the country’s traditional musical instruments.
Formed in 2008, the ensemble presents the ancient art of throat singing. It conveys the sound of more than 30 Kazakh folk musical instruments, including dombra, kobyz, shan kobyz, jetygen, sazsyrnai, sybyzgy, dangyr, konyrau. Attention is paid to appearance, as the artists also reflect the cultural charm of Turkic history through their attire.
Turan artists giving lecture about Kazakh folk art at the George Washington University. Photo credit: the Turan ensemble’s Instagram account.
On its way to promoting and popularizing Turkic art, the band has gained worldwide fame and staged more than 1,300 concerts in 70 countries. They performed at the New York-based Carnegie Hall, Washington-based John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Berlin-based Konzerthaus Berlin concert hall, Cannes-based Palais des Festivals et des Congrès convention center, Moscow Conservatory Grand Hall, and Moscow-based State Kremlin Palace.
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