Oriented on making people closer

I have known the famous conductor Nury Mukhyev for a long time, since my student years. Halypa is a mentor, that's how the students respectfully call him. He is always friendly to everyone and always in a good mood. Every morning he walks through the corridors of the conservatoire with the scores and his baton, quietly humming passages from symphonic works that he is to practice with the orchestra. On his way to the hall he makes time to talk to colleagues and students.

A lot of water has flowed since I studied at the Conservatoire and many things have changed. But Nury Mukhyevich remains unchanged. He is still vigorous, active and energetic. He generates ideas, creates and implements many projects and supports interesting endeavors of others. It seems that the years do not take him away! Many former students have become colleagues for him. But he still cares for them in the same paternal way. And indeed, next to him, I feel as young as I did three hundred years ago.

"Ainashka, how are you?" is how he usually greets me, and my student years immediately flash before my eyes. How we freshmen trembled when we first saw famous composers, singers and conductors in real life. They were approachable, joked with us, helped us in any way they could, and we are very grateful to them - our halypas - for their guidance and support.

Maestro Nury Mukhyev took his first steps in the world of music at the Dashoguz Music School named after Magtymguly Garlyev. After graduating with a red diploma, he entered the Turkmen State Pedagogical Institute of Arts to study at the Department of Conducting.

He began his first conducting experience at his “alma mater". Later he worked as a concertmaster in a puppet theater. But the real mastery came during his years at the Makhtumkuli Opera and Ballet Theatre. There he conducted the operas "Aleko" by S. Rachmaninoff, ballets "Paquita" by L. Minkus, "The Good Enchantress" by D. Nuryev, "Aldar Kose" by K. Korchmarev.

Then Nury Mukhyev started working at the Turkmen National Conservatory, at the Department of Music Pedagogy and Conducting. Not only young conductors but also composers come to him for advice and consultations. After all, it is the conductor who determines the most accurate reading of the author's idea, the impression an orchestral composition will make on the audience and how the listener will perceive it.

When working on the works of Turkmen composers, Halypa Nury usually holds discussions with the orchestra members, telling the history of this or that composition, its theme, imagery, musical thought and many other details that you cannot read about in a book. All this he learnt personally from the authors themselves, with whom he was brought together by fate and with whom he has friendly relations.

Then Nury Mukhyevich moves on to the next stage - he works out the parts with each group of instruments separately, refining the strokes, intonation, the mood of the music, the balance of sound between the groups. Sometimes he has to be strict and demanding in his work with the musicians. And this painstaking approach pays off. The orchestra led by Nury Mukhyev is considered one of the best in Turkmenistan. Its repertoire is scheduled for a year in advance.

The score should be realized only in a qualitative and professional manner, revealing the composer's idea or not performed at all, considers Nury Mukhyev. An orchestra is like a big palette with colors. And the conductor, dipping a brush and mixing the colors, recreates time after time the large-scale symphonic canvas conceived by the composer. And it is important that each subsequent performance, even if it is the thousandth time, should be a premiere, bright and fresh. So that there is no effect of rote and mechanical playing.

It was Nury Mukhyevich who was entrusted with working with many foreign performers who performed in Turkmenistan. These include the wonderful Mozart concertos with Professor François Chaplin of the Paris Conservatoire and Tchaikovsky's violin concerto with André Pelosi. In their interviews, the foreign guests also praised Maestro Mukhyev's skills and the professionalism of Turkmen musicians.

Now it can confidently be stated that Nury Mukhyevich has developed his own unique conducting school with its own creative and aesthetic traditions. The maestro's repertoire includes the best examples of symphonic music of Turkmenistan and foreign classics. Thanks to his encouragement, we have heard magnificent performances of symphonic works by Nury Halmamedov, Rejep Allayarov, Rejep Rejepov, Jeren Kurbanklycheva and many other Turkmen composers.

Nury Mukhyevich also has his successors. They are young talented conductors Resul Klychev, Dovletmamet Okdirov, Meret Mukhammetkuliev, Ovez Baylyev.

I would like to sincerely wish Maestro Nury Mukhyev "Halypa, armang!" which means: "May you never get tired, mentor!"

Аyna Shirova

Photo: awtordan