Ustatshakirt Center

Ustatshakirt Ensemble, based in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, consists of 10 soloist musicians who play on more than 20 traditional musical instruments. In their lively performances, the rich tembral palette and galloping rhythms of archaic nomadic instruments like kyl kiyak (two-stringed fiddle with horsehair strings), komuz (three-stringed long-necked lute), temir komuz (jaw harp), and sybyzgy (end-blown flute) offer a counterpoise to the buoyant vocal style known as “steppe bel canto.”
Ensemble Ustatshakirt is an activity of the Ustatshakirt Center, founded in 2005 as a nongovernmental organisation with support from the Aga Khan Music Program.
“Ustatshakirt” is the Kyrgyz rendition of ustod-shogird, a Persian expression that means “master-apprentice” or “master-disciple” and refers to the method through which art, music, and many other skills and professions have been traditionally transmitted in Central Asia. Over the last 15 years, the Centre has trained a new generation of Kyrgyz musical leaders who combine a deep knowledge of their own traditions with fluency in contemporary cosmopolitan musical languages.
Ensemble Ustatshakirt is their vibrant musical laboratory.
Ensemble members have performed at Brooklyn Academy of Music with American choreographer Seán Curran; at the 2012 pre-Olympics “River of Music” concert in London; in the Aga Khan Music Program’s multimedia production Qyrq Qyz (Forty Girls), and at a host of international and national festivals and concerts in the Far East, Central Asia, and Europe as well as in Kyrgyzstan.
The ensemble regularly takes part in republican large-scale projects of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic such as the World Nomad Games.
In 2018 the ensemble also performed at the ACC (Asia Culture Center) in the South Korea and created a new music performance titled “The Children of Watermelon Hill” within the framework of the Festival Symphony for Asia on the story of Korean writer. In this composition the Ustatshakirt ensemble attempted to include Kyrgyz and Korean musical motives through the prism of Kyrgyz epic heritage.
In 2019 Ustatshakirt Center with the support of Aga Khan Music Program performed at the ceremonial event as a representative of the Kyrgyz Republic in a
In 2021 the ensemble also participated at the twelfth ACC World Music Festival (Asia Culture Center) in Korea. The preparation and showcase took one and a half year and took place online due to COVID-19 pandemic. On July 25-26, 2021 the premiere of Family musical Suluu-Suu, a fairy tale of Kyrgyz writer about the Queen of water, was conducted. The music was created by Kyrgyz and Korean composers.
The ensemble participated at “The Roof of The World” Festival (2021) in Khorog, Tajikistan, annual festival that gathers international musicians online.