Homayoun Sakhi

Afghanistan
Musics and populars and classicals songs from Afghanistan Born in Kabul and currently living as a refugee in California, Homayoun Sakhi is the most outstanding Afghan rubab player of his generation. A brilliant virtuoso with a charismatic musical presence and personality.
He perpetuates the legacy of great music maters while developing his own hybrid and innovative style with unequaled creativity.

Alim and Fergana Qasimov

Azerbaïdjan
Spiritual music from Azerbaïdjan, Mugham Musicien atypique, réfractaire à l’académisme, Alim Qâsimov propose une relecture novatrice du mugham, le rebaignant dans son essence, une poésie romantique qui mêle le profane et le sacré et une forme musicale ouverte, de tous temps rebelle à la sclérose. Pour lui, chaque concert de mugham est une expérience méditative, voire mystique, dont il ne peut prévoir à l’avance le cheminement, même s’il s’appuie sur une trame fixée par la tradition.

Shashmaqam’s Academy

Classical music from Tadjikistan and Uzbekistan
In the ShashMaqâm, instrumental pieces, lyrical song, contemplative poetry, and dance are all bound together in a vast, yet integrated artistic conception of great refinement and profound beauty. Abduvali Abdurashidov create this Academy in the aim to offer to young artists, recruited through a nationwide competition, the possibility of working and keeping alive this musical tradition among the most important in Central Asia.

Songs, musics and dances from Badakhshan

For Badakhshanis, music and dance are intimately linked, and Sahiba, an outstanding dancer as well as one of Badakhshan’s finest female vocalists, illustrates the rich symbolism of Pamiri dance. Their repertory includes maddah – devotional songs that can embody the spiritual power known as baraka, laments with spare instrumental accompaniment called falak, and traditional popular songs, called khalqi.

Bardic Divas

Khirghizistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
Artists gathered in this program represent differents traditions of solo vocal expression of bardics from Central Asia , and more particularly the one represented by women.