DUSHANBE, May 14, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan marked a Shashmaqom (Tajik classical music) Day on May 12.

The same day, a Shashmaqom concert was held at the Kokhi Vahdat State Complex in Dushanbe.  Students at Academy of Shashmaqom in Dushanbe, ensembles Nouri Khujand and Falak as well as apprentices from the northern city of Panjakent and dancing group Gulrez performed in the concert.

President Emomali Rahmon, members of the government and public figures attended the concert.       

Shashmaqom Day is annually marked in Tajikistan since 1999, when the Shashmaqom ensemble at the Committee for TV and Radio-broadcasting was granted a status of the national ensemble.  

The Academy of Shashmaqom provides an elite group of students with an intensive four-year course of study in Shashmaqom, as well as traditional prosody and poetics (aruz), and music theory.  Graduates of the program earn a diploma validated by the Ministry of Education.

Pedagogic work is linked to musical performances, recordings, and ethnographic expeditions that help assure the continuity of the Shashmaqom. During the Academy’s first year of operation, students worked to recover musical textures, rhythms, and formal features characteristic of the Shashmaqom’s pre-Soviet performance style.