Culture makes a country great ? musical director Alan Buribayev

Alan, you were offered the position of the chief director of the National symphonic orchestra of the Irish television and radio. Was it a new step to achieve your goal? And what are your short-term plans? This invitation ? is an important stage in my life, but it was quite a surprise for me, because of my busy activity in two other European orchestras: Swedish symphonic orchestra ?Norchopping? and Dutch symphonic orchestra ?Brabants?. Eight weeks I am in Sweden and nine weeks in Holland, plus guest tours and many other administrative and organizational problems. As the chief band-master I decide what repertoires artists should have, which band-master would be invited, give audition to musicians. It takes a lot of time. This offer is pretty prestigious, because it is the main orchestra of Ireland, which 200 years ago was mastered by great Gendel. The archive has the music stand and chair of Gendel since his first performance of ?Messiah? oratorio. It is very meaningful to me. It is incredible that I would master this orchestra. Of course there were doubts. My agent urgently departed to Dublin for negotiations. It was decided that for the first two years I will not be coming to them very often. For instance, this season I came two times, and from September 2010 I will be there for six weeks in a season. In 2011-2012 I expect to cut my arrivals. My agent told that I am a little bit strange man, because everything goes vice-versa. Usually creative people have strong ambitions. You do everything vice versa, always thinking and making things slowly. From my experience I know many young musicians who started their career too early failed fast. It is important to know where you are going, to be ready for rise and fall. The offer to be the chief band-master of the national orchestra of such a country with a long history and rich culture implies big responsibility. I agreed, though I am aware of uneasy work ahead to serve a good example for young Kazakhstani musicians. Nevertheless this is a new stage in my life and I am only 30. I think what would be after Ireland 5-7 years after. I think that Ireland, Sweden and Holland are kind of creative laboratories for me, where I can practice and try new things for the first time. The national symphonic orchestra of the Irish television and radio is a huge structure with own chorus, and this means that there are another opportunities, I can make wonderful oratorios. And of course one of the reasons, which influenced on my agreement, is Dublin, because I like it so much. It is wonderful cultural and historical center. Ireland contributed a lot to the world. Everybody think that geniuses Oskar Wild, Bernard Show, Jonathan Swift are English writers, but they are Irish. When and how did you start your band-master career? How was your creative mentor? I started my career with participation in contests. I have won three contests in Europe: in 1999 when I was 20 I already was enrolled at the Vienne University of music and scene art. Afterwards there were another two competitions in Italy and Denmark where I met my present agent and became famous. Yuriy Temirkanov also helped me a lot. I was his assistant and he gave me big push and opened new level for me. I remember our first meeting in the ?Malko? contest, I mastered the fourth symphony of Brahms in the final and won. But after the contest me and Y.Temirkanov were in the banquet, he ?destroyed? my vision of this symphony. He showed me other ways and I realized that I was wrong. It was an absolute revolution in my mind. When you are close to a big musician, you adopt their style and principles. Many Kazakhstan musicians have found recognition of the world community. You are widely famous in Europe as the most perspective young band-master. Are you able to promote your native culture and art? How are they considered abroad? Music of which Kazakh composers do you perform? We have got interesting musical ethnos, which we have preserved. Kazakh music is unique. It is exotic for Europeans. We have got everything in our music: east, European rhythms, and even Chinese pentatonic. This pentatonic is very close to Celtic and Irish melodies, which mix with even jazz notes. Materials of our composers attract Europeans with its extraordinary content, sometimes they are even impudent, and when we play Kazakh music people expect something unforgettable. The work of a musician is highly valued in Europe and I like it. Here it is a very prestigious profession. The situation in Kazakhstan changed in the 1990-s, when being a musician proved to be non-prestigious and unprofitable. Of course, I do perform the music of Kazakh composers. As I belong to the Jubanovs family, I try not to forget about my famous roots. For example in February 2007 we made our north premier of the fortepiano concert of Gaziza Jubanova in Sweden. Wonderful pianist Freddy Campf played, who learned everything by heart and played with such a feeling that we made furor. Another success we had in Mainingen (Germany), when I ended my contract. The last concert we opened with the ?Symphonic dances? of Akhmet Jubanov and then played the ninth symphony of Beethoven. It was wonderful. Before going to Germany with Astana symphonic orchestra I said: ?let?s not perform Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rakhmaninov. They have Russian and German orchestras for these purposes. Let?s play our music.? And for first time our orchestra performed only Kazakh music in the West: Akhmet Jubanov, Latyfa Khamidi, Tles Kazhgaliyev, Adilya Bestybayeva? I think these actions make people know more about our country. Today I am very fond of Tles Kazhgaliyev?s music. Me and my Swedish orchestra plan to perform the premier of the suite from the ballet ?Steppe legend?. What does Kazakhstan classical music need to be promoted at the world scene? Good financial support and strong connections with European countries. Musicians of the world need to know each other. We need to work a lot and attract for cooperative work western musicians. Sometime the difference between Kazakhstan and western public confuses. People should know how to go the concerts, and it is a particular culture. Unfortunately today many people in Kazakhstan go to the concerts only because it is prestigious. Western public come to a concert and know the compositions that will be performed. They buy records of the season, they learn, compare, and then go to the concert. To go to concerts is a tradition and one needs to know how to do that. Our public is still not on this level, though it is seems to be ready for that. We should educate our audience which can become true judges of art in the future. You make frequent performances in Europe. Perhaps it is more exciting to perform in your home land? Do you notice any changes in the country? Although I perform quite seldom in Kazakhstan, I always try to, because it is my land, because my relatives and close people are here. I love my country, I love Almaty, and I really feel affection towards Astana, because I worked there for a long time. Today when I come there I see how it changed comparing with 5 years ago when I was the band-master of the Symphonic orchestra of the public philharmonic of Astana. Our capital becomes a beautiful modern Eurasian city, and Kazakhstan strengthens its position on the world arena. We need to pay more attention to the development of musical culture. We want to be a leading country, therefore we should develop arts and music, because they make country. All natural and technical resources are temporary, but culture and spirit are everlasting, their achievements become the history, that?s why we need sportsmen, artists, and musicians. Excitement I feel always when I see public, because I want it to understand what we want to bring them. Concert is a talk with public, that?s why all the parts of the concert should have connection with each other even if they are totally different. It is very interesting for me to construct the program vice versa. For instance to start from the Bartoc opera ?Duke Blue Beard? with complex Freid style, when doors on the stage symbolize mind, and complex music, after that to play 4 easy overtures from Offenbach operettas and to end with overture from ?Blue Beard? operetta by Offenbach, which doesn?t have any self-analysis but satire. I am sure that spectator will have much more satisfaction. I always make experiments, by virtue of my young age. You have a wonderful gift, probably you hear such words often, what is the secret of your talent? You are from a musical family, does it have any influence? The secret is that I love what I do very much. It supports my imagination constantly, anytime in the daytime and at night. My family influenced my creativity a lot. What would you advice to young musicians, and what does professional band-master should be? Kazakhstani classical music still does not hold a big place in the West, but I believe it is temporary. Earlier musicians would have abroad tours as part of cultural exchange programs, but those were singular cases. If you want people to remember you, you should repeat your performances and come every season, participate in international contests, and exchange experience. A lot of work and persistence are the key. You should not rehearse the same creations, but enlarge your repertoire. I know 5 languages and it helps me in everyday work ? English, German, Italian, Greek, Serbokharvatian, and French. I learned French by the help of comics. If you have the knowledge of languages and internet ? they are the doors to the world. A professional musical director should have ideal hearing sense, knowledge and character. Band-master should think and know for the whole orchestra, and it is very difficult. Alan Buribaev, born 1979, is a Kazakhstani conductor, the son of a cellist/conductor father and a pianist mother. He studied violin and conducting at the Kazakh State Conservatory. He was later a conducting student of Uros Lajovic in Vienna. Buribayev was a prize-winner in the Lovro von Matacic Conducting Competition in Zagreb and in the Antonio Pedrotti Competition in 2001. Buribayev began his tenure as Principal Conductor of the Astana Symphony Orchestra, Kazakhstan in March 2003, and had concluded his tenure by 2007. From 2004 to 2007, Buribayev was General Musikdirektor of the Meiningen Theatre, Germany. Since the 2007-2008 season, he is Principal Conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, and his current contract with the orchestra is through 2010. He became chief conductor of Het Brabants Orkest in the Netherlands with the 2008-2009 season. In May 2009 he was appointed Principal Conductor Designate of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. He will become Principal Conductor in September 2010.