Qonaqtar: Music in Ritual

As part of the Qonaqtar public program, ethnomusicologist Saida Elemanova will give a lecture on the role of music in ritual culture and traditional worldviews.

Rather than being analyzed as a system of expression, a style of compositional creativity, or a collection of technical elements like mode, rhythm, or timbre, music in ritual will be approached as a central phenomenon of traditional culture. In this understanding, ceremony and ritual represent a culminating moment of contact between the material and immaterial worlds. From this arises not only the sacred nature of these rituals (Kazakh: киелі, қасиетті), but also the thematic richness of folklore and traditional art.

The Qonaqtar public program is a series of events held in conjunction with the museum’s inaugural exhibition, Qonaqtar: An Exhibition from the Collection of the Almaty Museum of Arts. This series was conceived to offer a deeper look into the central themes and specific artworks within the collection.

The event will be held in Russian.

Elemanova Saida Abdrakhimovna is an ethnomusicologist and scholar of the arts, Doctor of Art Studies (2021), and Professor at the Department of Musicology and Composition of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory. She is a cultural figure, twice awarded the honorary title Mädeniet qayratkeri. She is the author of over a hundred publications on Kazakh traditional music and the music of Turkic peoples across different countries (United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, France), and has taken part in and organized numerous international conferences and seminars. She has organized more than ten international festivals of traditional music and compiled over 30 albums of traditional music recordings from various cultures. She is also the screenwriter and producer of the feature-length film Saz Qudireti on Kazakh traditional music, as well as ten video works on Kazakh traditional song. She is a member of the National Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2012).