Postcard from Bishkek

According to lots of sources, today, (January 16th), is International Beatles Day – and has been ever since it was declared as such by UNESCO back in 2001 … funnily enough, however, the UNESCO site has no mention of it. I came across this particular oddity quite by chance … a Russian site announced the […]

The other day I picked up the newspaper and was thumbing through it to see if there was anything interesting, and was about to put it down again when I was pulled up sharp by an article on one of the inner pages. There was a photo of a young musician playing a choor – […]

I remember going for a walk through the city centre back  on my first visit to Kyrgyzstan, (back in 1994 – when I came here for a two week holiday), and walking past the Opera and Ballet Theatre hearing one of the singers practising her scales.  My friend, Tony, who was with me and had […]

I often get asked what sort of music I like to listen to.  It’s a difficult question to answer because I have fairly catholic tastes when it comes to music; I can listen to almost everything if I am in the right mood. I remember that the first record I ever bought was an LP […]

In yesterday’s post about the National Anthem of Kyrgyzstan, I mentioned that current anthem which was introduced in 1992 replaced an early one, written in 1946, by Adbylas Maldibaev, which served as the anthem of the Khirghiz SSR, however, that was not 100% accurate.  Although he was one of the composers, it was a collaborative […]

In last week’s weekly postcard, (posted on Saturday), I mentioned that, “Perhaps the strangest new item of the week is that the parliament has established a working group to change the country’s Flag and National Anthem.” I wrote  a postcard about the Kyrgyz flag earlier in the month, so let me now turn my attention to […]

I was ten years old, and still at Primary School on January 1st, 1964, when the disc jockey Jimmy Saville presented the very first edition of the United Kingdom’s flagship programme reviewing the pop music charts, Top of the Pops, (TOTP).  To be honest, I can’t remember actually watching it, but I am sure that […]

Yesterday I had from Aizada.  She’s the Director of one of the city’s Music Schools – The Children’s Musical School Number 7. I am not sure why the schools here are given numbers rather than names, but that’s the system here.  They name virtually everything else in honour of some notable character or other.  The […]

The Chopo Choor is one of the oldest of Kyrgyz traditional instruments.  Originally a children’s toy, (hence it is not difficult to play), it has developed into an instrument with a fine timbre and in the hands of a master can produce haunting melodies. Originally it was found mainly in the rural areas in the south of […]

It is a very versatile instrument and can be played by either men or women, boys or girls – as a solo instrument, as part of an larger group, or as part of a larger folk group ensemble featuring other traditional instruments.  It is not unusual to see young children in the streets of Bishkek carrying a Komuz […]