The celebration on the occasion of the opening of the International Festival and Conference “National song and musical art in the heritage of the peoples of the world” was held today at the Mukams Palace of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan.

Delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Tatarstan (RF), Türkiye and Uzbekistan arrived in Ashgabat to participate in the forum.

In the foyer of the Mukams Palace, the guests got acquainted with the exhibition. The exposition included museum valuables, works of fine and decorative art on the theme of musical art, ancient musical instruments, videos of Turkmen folk singers and musicians, as well as samples of sound-reproducing equipment of the past years.

At the opening ceremony, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov's greetings to the participants and guests of the international forum were read out.

Then was held a concert, the program of which included unique samples of the original folk musical and singing traditions of the peoples of the countries participating in the festival, which brought together a solid team of original performers, folklore and vocal ensembles, which can rightly be called the keepers and popularizers of traditions.

Mastery in playing traditional Tatar music on national instruments was demonstrated by members of the ethno group Alpar from Kazan. National tunes were performed by the folklore-ethnographic group “Ethno-Osh” from the Kyrgyz Republic. Turkish folk melodies and dances were presented to the audience by the artists of the musical and choreographic group Türk dünýäsi, Uzbek maqoms - musicians from the Bukhara school of this art.

Ensembles of folk instruments from Iran and Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were greeted with friendly applause by the audience.

The hosts of the festival - Turkmen bahshi musicians, famous folklore groups and dance groups presented the variety of musical traditions of Turkmenistan.

The general atmosphere that unites the participants of the festival of musical art in Ashgabat is goodwill and mutual understanding, the desire to give the audience warmth, spiritual purity and inexhaustible freshness of folk art.

“The root music for peoples living in peace and friendship for many centuries is native, one for all, even if you don’t always understand the words of the sounding song”, the grateful audience said after the concert.

Let us remind that the three-day festival program includes concerts, creative meetings, master classes.

The closing ceremony of the forum will be held on November 30 at the Mukams Palace