Maqām Beyond Nation
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Uzbek Maqom Workshop at SOAS with Ilyos Arabov
By Eugene Leung Ilyos Arabov, Honoured Artist of Uzbekistan, Professor and Head of the Instrumental Performance Department at the Yunus Rajabiy Institute for National Musical Arts, gave a workshop at SOAS on 26 February 2026. The aim of the workshop was to allow musicians with proficient with other maqām traditions to have a first experience in performing maqom-based Uzbek music, with an emphasis on its intricate ornamentations, also known as nola (“sighing”) in Uzbek. […]
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Music and Dance of Bukhara: Spiritual Heartland of Central Asia
Group: Ilyos Arabov Ensemble Date: 27 February 2026 Time: Doors open at 7pm Venue: Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, SOAS University of London, WC1H 0XG Ilyos Arabov, born in the ancient city of Bukhara and now recognised one of the finest musicians in Uzbekistan, leads this internationally acclaimed ensemble in a programme of Shashmaqom (the music nurtured in the court of the Emir of Bukhara) and traditional songs for celebrations, with dances […]
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Bastakor creativity in Uzbekistan
Fieldwork: Researching bastakor creativity in Uzbekistan, Sept-Dec 2025 Eugene Leung travelled to Uzbekistan between September and December to conduct fieldwork for his PhD dissertation, on creativity in Uzbek classical music. Based in Tashkent, he was attached to the Yunus Rajabiy Institute of National Musical Arts (UzMMSI), immersing in its musical life, whilst also travelling to cities such as Bukhara, Samarqand and Andijan to engage with musicians and musical institutions in these cities. […]
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Saeid Kordmafi Delivers Lecture at the Research Institute of Cultural Studies and Intangible Cultural Heritage, Uzbekistan
On 10 September 2025, Dr. Saeid Kordmafi, Co-Investigator of the Maqam Beyond Nation project, delivered an online lecture as part of the Scientific and Practical Lecture Series at the “Research Institute of Cultural Studies and Intangible Cultural Heritage” under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan. The lecture, titled “Where Is the Maqam World? An Introduction to Classical Musics of the Islamic World” aimed to establish a general […]
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Professor Owen Wright Receives the 2025 British Academy Derek Allen Prize
Maqam Beyond Nation is proud to share that Professor Owen Wright, esteemed member of our Advisory Board and Emeritus Professor of Musicology of the Middle East at SOAS University of London, has been awarded the 2025 Derek Allen Prize by the British Academy. This prestigious award, presented annually in rotation across the fields of musicology, numismatics, and Celtic studies, recognizes outstanding scholarly contributions. This year, it honours Professor Wright for his […]
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“Chegra Bilmas Maqom”A collaboration on Central Asian Maqām across Borders
by Rachel Harris On stage at Ala Space, Almaty. Photo by Mukaddas Mijit In October 2025, we brought together a group of musicians from Tashkent and Almaty for two concerts based on a creative exploration of maqām traditions from Central Asia. Abror Zufarov (vocals, sato), Guzal Muminova (dotar) and Sherzod Nazarov (doira), all teachers at the Yunus Rajabi Institute in Tashkent, have been working with Almaty-based independent musicians, Saniyam Ismail […]
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Strand 7: Bastakor and maqām-based creativity in Uzbekistan
Eugene Leung This strand explores creativity in Tajik-Uzbek ‘national’ music through the figure of the bastakor, the creator of new works in traditional styles by drawing on the maqām traditions of Bukhara, Khorezm, and Ferghana-Tashkent, as well as more popular genres influenced by them. Although these maqām repertoires are viewed as closed, manybastakor compositions are recognised as extensions that sustain the tradition’s vitality. This practice of creative adaptation has endured from the […]
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Strand 1: Maqām across the Soviet-Chinese divide
Rachel Harris, Eugene Leung, Mukaddas Mijit. This strand aims at “unbordering” Central Asian maqām repertoires across the former Soviet-Chinese divide. It focuses on repertoires canonised in the twentieth century as the separate Uzbek and Tajik Shashmaqām, and the Uyghur Twelve Muqam, and also less recognised regional maqām traditions from Khorezm, Ferghana and Turpan. Since the mid-twentieth century these repertoires have been extensively nationalised, and the overwhelming thrust of scholarship, training […]
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Strand 2: Migrant memories, migrant creativities
Rachel Harris, Mukaddas Mijit, Aziz Isa Elkun This strand attends to human mobilities impelled by political violence and repression, the experience of migrants and the role of music-making in precarious lives; how music-making meets everyday needs for intimacy and belonging across borders, and the intersections of artistic and activist projects undertaken by migrants. Working with a transnational network of exile Uyghur Sufi devotees, we will document their cross-border histories, and […]
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Strand 3: Neo-Ottomanism and maqām revival
Giovanni De Zorzi This strand concerns the revival of Ottoman art music and Sufi-inspired forms of spirituality in contemporary Turkey. Under the Turkish Republic, Ottoman art music underwent a long period of neglect, Sufi lodges were closed, and their musical ceremonies prohibited. Since the 1980s, the revival of Ottoman culture has become a major transnational trend. In the sphere of music, the revival process has involved the rediscovery of repertoires […]