WOMAD

Aayjemaal

From Turkmenistan

Aayjemaal Ilyasova, a graduate of singing at the Ashgabat musical college, has also studied music in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She has been involved in promoting Turkmen folk music, and has set up a women's folk music group. She has represented Turkmenistan - singing, dancing and playing the traditional jew's harp or gopuz - in mant countries at folk festivals: in Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Cambodia and Russia, and she came to England in 2003 to perform. At present she's an actress at the Molla Nepes Theatre in Ashgabat. Aayjemaal has a reputation in her homeland as one of the best interpreters of the oldest classical Turkmen folk songs, which go back three hundred years. HAKBERDI ALLAMYRADOV is no stranger to the Reading WOMAD stage. He has performed there as part of the group Ashgabat. He is an internationally acclaimed driummer, and has had concerts in many countries - the USA, Russia, Japan, Germany, England and Turkey. He is a graduate of the Ashgabat Conservatoire. He trains young drummers in Turkmenistan and has his own percussion group. AKMYRAT CHARUYEV is a master of the dutar, a two-stringed Turkmen folk instrument. He teaches at the Conservatoire in Ashgabat. He has given concerts in many countries, but this is is first visit to the UK.YAKUP is a young talent, a Conservatoire graduate, who is one of the best Gyjak players in Turkmenistan.