BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 17. The fifth “Mugham World” International Mugham Festival will be held on June 18-25 in Azerbaijan, Trend reports.
At the festival organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the country, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Education, the Azerbaijan National Conservatory Music College, the country will be represented by the winners of the national mugham competition, which was held on April 24-27.
Registration of international participants of the festival ends on May 20.
As part of the festival, various concerts will be organized in Baku, Aghjabadi and Shusha.
The music festival will begin on June 18 with a concert by People's Artist Alim Gasimov at the Heydar Aliyev Palace, concerts by People's Artist Anvar Sadigov and Honored Artist Emil Afrasiyab at the conservatory.
Moreover, on June 19, the festival will continue at the International Mugham Center, the National Conservatory and the Stone Chronicle Museum with concerts by Honored Artist Elchin Shirinov and a number of mugham performers, as well as with concerts by Daud Khan Sadozai from Afghanistan and Mahan Mirarab from Iran.
The next performances within the framework of the festival will be held on June 20 in chamber and organ music hall of Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall, the International Mugham Center, National Conservatory Music College.
Azerbaijani People's Artist Sakina Ismayilova, winner of international competitions Etibar Asadli will perform at these venues. Vasumati Badrinathan and Jyotsna Srikanth from India, Kankou Kouyaté from Mali will also perform.
On the next day of the festival, performances of the Cadenza Contemporary Orchestra at the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts, pianist Tural Raphael, Macadi Nahhas from Jordan, Ilyes Arabov from Uzbekistan, Sardor Soliev from Tajikistan are expected.
Mustafa Said and the Asil Ensemble from Egypt on June 22 will perform on the stage of the International Mugham Center. Firudin Hamidov representing Azerbaijan, Varijashree Venugopal, Jyotsna Srikanth from India will perform at the National Conservatory, and the En Chordais ensemble from Greece will perform in the Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall.
Then, on June 24, a concert of the Azerbaijan State Symphony Orchestra named after Uzeyir Hajibeyov will be held at the Heydar Aliyev Center, and a concert of People's Artist, Teyyub Aslanov and pianist Nijat Aslanov will be held at the National Conservatory.
Tickets for concerts in Baku will soon appear on the iTicket.az website and at the box office.
As part of the festival, a concert with the participation of mugham performers will be organized in the city of Aghjabadi. Mugham and poetry performers will perform at various venues in the city of Shusha.
An international symposium will be held during the festival, instrumental types of mugham will be presented at Icheri Sheher in Baku, and a mugham marathon will be organized within 24 hours at a single venue, where 24 groups will perform, which will replace each other. In addition, an open-air "Hour of Mugham" will be organized.
On the last day of the festival - June 25, the closing ceremony of the “Mugham World” International Mugham Festival will be held at the Muslim Magomayev Azerbaijan State Academic Philharmonic Hall. Here, after awarding the winners of the international mugham competition held within the framework of the festival, a concert will be presented.
The winners of the competition in vocal (khananda) and instrumental performance will be selected by an international jury from Azerbaijan, the UK, Iraq, Uzbekistan and Türkiye.
In recent years, fundamental work has been done in Azerbaijan to preserve and develop mugham. As a result of the support provided by the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva to the national culture, the art of mugham and the work carried out in this direction, in 2008 Azerbaijani mughams were included in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO.
National mugham contests and international mugham festivals have been held since 2009 on the initiative of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, headed by First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva. These projects are designed to once again demonstrate and preserve our national heritage - mugam in the context of world culture.