Registan, Samarkand · Uzbekistan · UNESCO-listed · Contribution
Sharq Taronalari
Anyone who has seen the first note land on the Registan at nightfall understands why I do not treat Central Asia as a footnote.
Sharq Taronalari is a UNESCO-listed festival for traditional music that takes place on Registan Square in Samarkand. Ensembles from dozens of countries meet there — in a setting that makes any European festival stage look small.
My involvement in this festival is the reason the bridge I build does not end in the Middle East. Between the Maghreb, the Mashreq and Central Asia run musical lines that hardly anyone in Europe thinks of together: maqam traditions, lute instruments, rhythmic models that have changed one another over centuries.
For German venues that means something concrete: I know ensembles and contacts in a region from which few people otherwise reach European stages — and I know what it takes in lead time, visas and trust for them to actually arrive.
My role
- Contributing to one of the largest festivals of traditional music worldwide
- Contacts with ensembles and promoters in Central Asia
- Placing Central Asian traditions in context for European audiences
- A bridge between Uzbek and German programmes
- Festival
- Registan, Samarkand · Uzbekistan · UNESCO-listed · Contribution
Further along the band
All eight programmes
Next step
Shall we build something like this together?
Tell me in three steps what you have in mind — format, setting, date. I get back to you personally.