Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

The 13th Uzeyir Hajibayli International Music Festival will take place in Shusha on September 18-24.

Under President İlham Aliyev's order, Azerbaijan’s historic Shusha city has been declared the country's cultural capital.

For this reason, the festival's first concert will be held in Shusha on September 18, on the birthday anniversary of Azerbaijani professional music and national opera's founder Uzeyir Hajibayli.

The Azerbaijani State Song and Dance Ensemble will perform at the concert under the baton of People's Artist Agaverdi Pashayev.

For young talents, a new program "Youth echoes of the art of Uzeyir" will be presented as part of the festival.

The festival will bring together eminent musicians from Azerbaijan, the U.S. and Poland.

A number of cultural events are also planned to be held in Baku, Ganja and Aghdam as part of the festival.

Entry to the events will be possible only by special invitations and with a COVID-19 passport.

The tradition of celebrating the birthday of the great composer as a holiday was laid by eminent conductor Niyazi, who used to celebrate this day each year after Uzeyir Hajibayli's death.

This tradition continues till nowadays.

Numerous cultural events, including gala concerts and festivals are being held across the country as part of the celebration.

In 2009, it was decided to hold the International Music Festival in honor of the prominent composer.

Traditionally, national and foreign musicians, outstanding performers, orchestras from around the world gather in Baku to show their talents.

Musicians and collectives from Germany, Russia, Turkey, Georgia, France, Bulgaria and other countries take part in the festival.

Uzeyir Hajibayli laid the foundation of a national musical style. He was the first composer of an opera in the Islamic world.

The opera "Leyli and Majnun" (1908) is based on traditional folk music and dance, musical genres that relied on oral traditions.

Furthermore, the composer wrote his second opera "Sheikh Sanan", "Rustam and Sohrab", "Asli and Karam", "Shah Abbas" and "Khurshudbanu and Harun" and "Leyli" entirely based on the national folk music elements, primarily mugham.

He also composed three comedies including, "Husband and Wife" (1910), "If not this one, that one" (1911) and "Arshin Mal Alan" (1913).

"Arshin Mal Alan" or "The Cloth Peddler" was the latest and one of the most popular operettas of the eminent composer.

The operetta has been successfully performed in a plethora of languages in over 60 countries of the world, including in the U.S, Austria, France, China, Greece, India, Russia, and Turkey.

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