Anthology of Kazakh Kuy Project Unveiled in USA
Washington, June 22, 2021 – As part of the celebration of the 30th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an online presentation of the Amanat – Anthology of the Kazakh kuy was held, co-hosted by the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Washington D.C. and the Caspian Policy Center.
Keynote speakers were Chairman of the Board of Sauap Foundation, Deputy of the Mazhilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan Bakhytbek Smagul, co-author of the Amanat project Muslim Khasenov, as well as President and CEO of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy Susan M. Elliott as a moderator.
Opening the event, Ambassador of Kazakhstan to USA Yerzhan Ashikbayev spoke about the peculiarities of Kazakh culture and national music – kuy on dombra and kobyz, as well as about the Amanat project, which includes a collection of 500 archival kuys in authentic performance on USB device and a book with a description of each musical piece in Kazakh, Russian and English.
Bakhytbek Smagul described the Amanat project, within the framework of which unique musical works from various archives of Kazakhstan and neighboring countries were collected and digitized.
Musslim Khasenov noted that this was the project’s first foreign presentation and that the books had been handed over to major US libraries in Washington D.C., New York, Boston and San Francisco, including the US Library of Congress.
Online attendees also acquainted themselves with contemporary musicians’ play the musical pieces on dombra, kobyz and sybyzgy. In between the pre-recorded videos, Musslim Khasenov presented a short history and description of each work.