Art

Home page

Art

Documentary film about Azerbaijani mugham made by Thomas Goltz wins Award of Merit in US

06 August 2009 09:12 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Zaur Hasanov â€“ APA. A fifteen-minute music video about four traditional players of Azerbaijani music on tour across the U.S. state of Montana has won an Award of Merit in the short film/documentary category at the La Jolla, California 2009 Accolade Film Festival Competition. APAâ€™s US bureau reports that the documentary film was made by Montana State University Professor, author of â€œAzerbaijan Diaryâ€ Thomas Goltz.

â€˜The Mystical Music of Mugham Comes to Montanaâ€™ detailed the exhausting cross-cultural musical road trip of the group Qadim Sharq (â€˜Ancient Eastâ€™) across the Treasure State, with performances at Rocky Mountain College in Billings in the east, the music department of Montana State University in Bozeman in south-central Montana, the Livingston library on the Yellowstone River, and finally at the University of Montana at Missoula in the west, where the group was joined by famed American mugham specialist Jeffery Werbock for a final concert/jam session. Along the way, the group opened the ears of hundreds of locals to the magic of the mystical, non-rhythmic, modal music of Azerbaijan--mugham.

â€œIt is a delight to be explaining Azerbaijani art and culture as opposed to war and political collapse,â€ Thomas Goltz.

â€˜The Mystical Music of Mughamâ€™ was shot by Livingston cameraperson Randy Jacobs with extra footage shot by Missoula-based Ian Clark, edited by Katy Magruder of the Montana Sprout Group, and produced by Chairman of the Azerbaijani-European Union Society Tale Heydarov. Special assistance was provided by Vahid Alekbarov, a refugee from Armenian-occupied Karabakh, who is now a resident in Billings, and Elin Suleymanov, Consul General of the Azerbaijan Republic in Los Angeles and the thirteen western US states, including Montana.