Programs and Events
American and Kazakhstani NGOs Build "Jazz Bridges Kazakhstan"
Presidential Cultural Center, Astana, November 8, 2006"American Voices" jazz artists Deborah Brown and Mike Del Ferro played to packed houses in Astana's Presidential Cultural Center November 8, 2006. Jazz is one of the most popular American art forms in Kazakhstan, as demonstrated by the enthusiastic audience response and extensive and laudatory press coverage.
In their "Jazz Bridges Kazakhstan" concert, Brown and Del Ferro performed jazz standards from "The American Songbook" and "Jazz Bridges," jazz renditions of Kazakh traditional music. "Jazz Bridges" featured an ensemble of four musicians under the leadership of the world famous dombra player, Alkuat Kazakhbayev. In an interview with Liter daily November 4, Brown said the lovely tones of the dombra expressed the "soul of Kazakhstan".
While in Astana Brown and Del Ferro held jazz workshops for vocalists and musicians at the National Academy of Music on November 6.
The concerts were organized by John Ferguson, a pianist and the executive director of the American Voices Association, in collaboration with the "Astana City Student Alliance" NGO, and the U.S. Embassy, with a generous donation from Exxon Mobil Kazakhstan, Inc.
American Voices was founded in 1992 to promote American music and culture abroad. The Houston-based American Voices is now the only American musical organization committed to interactive performances and education in the Middle East and Central Asia. View photogallery