CONTEMPORARY MUSIC IN CENTRAL ASIA

Since 2005, CEC ArtsLink has fostered much fruitful collaboration between Central Asian musicians and Bang on a Can, the New York City based contemporary music organization.

Through this partnership, over a dozen Central Asian musicians have performed with Bang on a Can at their Summer Institute held at Mass MoCA in North Adams Massachusetts each summer and in their Marathon concert in New York City. Both the Summer Institute and the popular Marathon bring together talented young musicians from around the world. CEC ArtsLink has also facilitated two Central Asian tours for Bang on a Can musicians, in which they performed for large audiences as well as held seminars and workshops with local musicians in Almaty, Kazakhstan and Tashkent and Bukhara in Uzbekistan.

Participants on both sides of these endeavors have gained invaluable intercultural understanding, professional contacts, new musical knowledge and an opportunity to promote both traditional Central Asian music and experimental contemporary music within new audiences.