We are guided by what unites people
News
Articles
Media
Announcement
Chinese New YearTechnology
About Us
Contacts
||
Chinese New Year Chinese New YearTurkmen, when a newborn appears in the family, invites a respected aksakal and asks him to perform the rite of blessing the child for life. Aksakal, after reading the azan - a special prayer, becomes the azan ata of the baby (honorary grandfather). According to popular belief, the child will be similar in character to his azan ata. Therefore, every father wants the ceremony to be performed by a good, authoritative person.
...Once, when I was asked "Who is the best conductor?", I answered half-jokingly: "Whoever performs Turkmen music more often and well is the best."
Now about Ashir Khodjatov, People's Artist of Turkmenistan, conductor of the student symphony orchestra of the Turkmen National Conservatory named after Maya Kuliyeva.
At one time, Khodjatov worked as the art director and chief conductor of the Turkmen State Symphony Orchestra, and during his half-century career, he made a significant contribution to the development of Turkmen musical art.
As a child, when Ashir herded cattle in the Tejen valleys and sang with all his might, turning the field into a concert stage, he could not imagine that he would be able to see and talk with the creators and performers of these songs...
When he was in high school, he became interested in music, learned to play the dutar and perform folk songs. The love for music brought him to Ashgabat, to the Turkmen State Music College named after D. Ovezov. He was lucky to become a student of an experienced composer and teacher of choral conducting Heinrich Drzhevsky. Then the teacher was able to awaken Ashir's unquenchable passion for professional art.
As a student at the department of choral conducting at the Turkmen State Pedagogical Institute of Arts (now the Turkmen National Conservatory), Ashir decides to become a conductor of a symphony orchestra. And these thoughts that captured the young man soon materialized - he was invited to become the second conductor of the Turkmen State Symphony Orchestra. And he threw himself headlong into these magical embraces, never ceasing to learn and discover new heights of the profession.
An internship in St. Petersburg with Eduard Serov, chief conductor of the Leningrad Chamber Orchestra of Ancient and Contemporary Music, became decisive in the development of Khodjatov as a symphony conductor. The seething musical and cultural life of the city on the Neva, regular attendance at concerts by the Yevgeny Mravinsky Orchestra and other famous conductors have become a real university for the young Turkmen musician.
Since Serov was a student of the great Mravinsky, who was called the lord of the orchestra, one can catch the commonality in the conducting methods of their work and the work of Khodjatov. Following in the footsteps of his teachers, he begins to work with the orchestra only after a thorough study of the work and does not part with the score until the author's intention is fully read and consolidated in the conductor's memory. Absolute restraint when interacting with musicians is combined with a sense of the finest nuances of a composition, which he captures and translates with a special natural gift of a conductor.
Veli Mukhatov, an elder of the Turkmen composer school, once said to Khodjatov: “Ashir jan, I never cease to be amazed at how you can clearly feel the exact tempo of music, the duration of fermats, pauses, caesuras...”. Ashir took this praise as a valuable gift.
They strive to acquaint Turkmen listeners with all the diversity of world classics and at the same time give sound to the symphonic works of Turkmen composers. Khodjatov has always supported young composers and singers, contributing to their creative growth.
Now he directs the symphony orchestra of the conservatory, and the student team has a special specificity. Firstly, the “fluidity” of the composition, when freshmen come to replace the fifth-year students, and everything starts all over again, and secondly, the pedagogical mission of the conductor, who, moreover, must be a good psychologist in order to find an approach to each of the more than 80 performers and to the entire group as a whole. “Young people who have come to the world of music are sitting in the orchestra. They need to be given a life and musical education,” Khodjatov says.
…Usually, listeners have the most vivid impression of a piece after the first listening, and here a lot depends on the conductor. Therefore, composers, trusting the premiere of their work to this or that conductor, are comparable to parents who choose Azan Ata for their child. And for forty years already, Ashir Khodjatov has been such a coveted Azan ata, presenting new works to listeners, which he blesses for life with his art of a sensitive and responsible gesture.
For a composer, having a conductor friend is a blessing. I was lucky in this regard. All my symphonic and vocal-symphonic works were premiered by Ashir Khodjatov. Of these, the work “Pendi Nagmalary-2” for garga tuyduk and string orchestra is dedicated to my friends-conductor Khodjatov and excellent oboist Yolaman Saryev.
Ashir Khodjatov turns 70 this year. This significant date coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Mai Kuliyeva Turkmen National Conservatory, where he previously studied, and now generously shares his rich experience with the younger generation.
composer Sukhan TUILIEV
