Turkmen folk music knows many names of outstanding female bagsi, who are not inferior to male representatives in their performing talent and virtuoso playing of the dutar. It is enough to remind the first performers of destans - female bagshy Akjagul Myradova and Nabat Nurmuhammedova. Or turn to even more ancient sources, telling the legend of Heley-bagshy, who surpassed Kor-Kojali himself in a creative competition.
Over the years of independence, a new generation of the national school of dutarchy and successors of the best traditions of bagsy has been formed in our country. The Faculty of Folk Music of the Turkmen National Conservatory named after M. Kuliyeva makes a huge contribution to the development of folk musical art. In September 2023, on the initiative of the creative university, a new musical group was organized, consisting of beautiful and talented Bagshy girls.
The ensemble of girls is led by People's Artist of Turkmenistan, continuer of the style direction Nabat Nurmuhammedova, senior teacher of the department of bagshy art Shemshat Hojayeva. And although its team was assembled relatively recently, the ensemble of girls began their creative journey quite brightly, making their presence known on national television for the first time.
«Our ensemble consists of 20 girls, students of the conservatory», says Shemshat Hojayeva. – The special uniqueness of the team is that representatives from all velayat of the country participate in it. And, as you know, each region of Turkmenistan is famous for its style of performance. The girls actively interact, learn to accompany in the manner of various styles of the dutarchy school, adopting from each other such performing styles as ahal-yoly, salyr-saryk, damana-yoly, yomut-goklen and others.
Members of the ensemble Tazegul Atajanova, Dunya Gutlyyeva, Saparova Jemal are laureates of the song and music competitions «Ýaňlan, Diýarym»! and «Çalsana, bagşy»! Also in the team there are successors of musical dynasties and bagsy dynasties.
The successful realization of talents of girls and acquisition of the necessary skills is facilitated by professional training from experienced teachers and stage masters. Indeed, in mastering dutar and the art of throat singing - bagsi singing, the principle of «word of mouth» plays a significant role. All the secrets of performing arts cannot be learned from books. Therefore, students who have chosen the dutar as their main musical instrument must study with teacher-mentors.
– For our first public performance, which recently took place in the new city of «Arkadag», and was shown on the new «Arkadag» TV channel, we prepared 23 works. Most of them are based on poems by the great poet «Magtymguly Pragy». In the year that passes under the motto «The Fount of the Wisdom Magtymguly Fragi», our country celebrates the 300th anniversary of the birth of the classic poet. Therefore, it was a special honor for us to perform such a program to please connoisseurs of his excellent poetic heritage.
Before a long journey or wishing success on a creative path, Turkmens say: «Ýoluňyz ak bolsun»! All that remains to be added is that the viewer is looking forward to new performances by the ensemble of Bagshy girls.
