2026 is a significant year for the Sounds of Dutar Foundation: it will host the anniversary edition of the 10th Moscow International Arts Festival named after Nury Khalmamedov. This significant milestone will open with a tribute concert, which promises to be one of the most subtle and soulful events of the season.

On February 22 (at 4:00 PM), the cozy music lounge of the A.N. Scriabin Memorial Museum will be filled with sounds that connect eras and peoples. The program "Music of the Universe and Melody of the Soul" is a meeting of two titans: Russian pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin, who anticipated many musical trends of the 20th century, and Nury Khalmamedov, a leading figure in Turkmen classical music who became its "soul."

The connection between these names is no coincidence. Nury Khalmamedov, whose genius grew from the soil of ancient folk tales, called Scriabin his second teacher. The composer's diaries contain a confession: if Turkmen folklore gave his music its roots, Scriabin taught it to fly, opening up the boundless horizons of global academicism. Both masters—each in their own time—reached the heights of national romanticism, imbuing the pianoforte with incredible drama and luminous energy.

Listeners will be immersed in the philosophy of both composers' late periods. The first half will feature the "mystical" Scriabin: his legendary Sonata No. 7 ("White Mass"), striving for ecstatic light, and the virtuoso "Three Etudes, Op. 65."

The evening will culminate with Nury Khalmamedov's "Six Lyrical Pieces for Piano." This maestro's final piano work is a poignant confession, in which every note is imbued with profound lyricism and love for his native land.

Pianist Elisey Babanov, a laureate of the International Rachmaninoff Competition and a jury member of the "Sounds of the Dutar" festival, will guide you through this complex world of images. His performance, nurtured in the finest traditions of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (class of Professor S. Dorensky), is distinguished by the intellectual depth demanded by the music of Scriabin and Khalmamedov.

The evening will be especially enriched by an opening address by Moscow Conservatory Professor Vyacheslav Medushevsky. The Doctor of Art History will share his reflections on Scriabin's creative legacy and personal memories of Nury Khalmamedov, with whom he shared a close bond during his years of study at the Moscow Conservatory.

The host and author of the project is composer Mamed Guseinov, Artistic Director of the Nury Khalmamedov Moscow International Arts Festival "Sounds of the Dutar," and a member of the Union of Composers of Russia. For ten years now, his tireless energy has transformed the "Sounds of the Dutar" festival into a bridge between Russian and Turkmen cultures.