AKMARAL KAZHGALIYEVA

INTERVIEW​

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1. What slogan would represent you and your art the most?  

 -  “I am studying the Universe’s secrets through the Music and share with others…” 

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2. What do you value the most in music?

 - It is a chance to open you from new sides by immersing into another reality. The chance to express yourself and share with all the feelings perceived with the World. When you interact with it, you can get charged, inspired and energized.

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3. Many musicians say that they get to know themselves more and open own new talents because of your art…How the music influenced you?

 -  Self-discipline and persistency. The important feature of the Music that it disciplines. Like a sport. You do exercise every day, stay in fit, and learn numerous pieces of different complexity and style. I remember the Teacher told me: "You should be able to play any music even if it is not to your taste!" And even if you don't understand how to play it, you continue to look for solutions: listen to the recordings, watch and analyze how the teacher deals with other students, study, read, search, try, and overcome! Thanks to music, you understand what you are capable of. It schools you to perseverance, will, determination, and endurance! Both on the stage and in life. Remember the rule: "If you made a mistake or forgot, move on!" 

Professional interest. You master a large repertoire when you work as an Accompanist or Tutor. As an Accompanist, I was lucky to work in different classes: violin, viola, cello, double bass, and conductor-choral class, in a choreography class with amazing teacher-professors, they gave me exact and methodical recommendations that I use successfully to date. And as a Tutor, I had experience to learn from skilled professionals. It is very exciting and valuable. 

Courage and Mobility. I will never forget how I learned Glinka's Sonata for viola and piano in 5 days. I was asked to play in a competition in another city. It was a test for me. I was very nervous concerning the performance and little daughter I has to leave.  As a result, we performed well and the student became a laureate. Another case: when my daughter was preparing for a concert with an orchestra, it turned out that there was no score and I should to orchestrate the Concertino by Polunin. At that time, I had a little son, and I was worried if I would be in time. The skill of instrumentation and friend’s belief helped me to conduct this Concert. And there are many such examples! And not only mine! Tutors taught us how to overcome difficulties. I am so grateful to them! 

Immersion in music and understanding its content. Certainly, the Music helps to know yourself and innermost angles of your soul. Sometimes playing on the stage you suddenly feel a different energy like “goose bumps”; you feel sadness, nostalgia, love, joy, unusual surge of strength – the entire palette of human feelings and emotions. Sometimes even pictures of events run before my eyes, the Music can be so “talking”, so “symbolic”. Sometimes you can even cry... 

I agree with Heine who said: "A crack in the world is going through the poet's heart." Through the heart of the Poet, Artist, and Musician...

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4. What does music mean to you?

 - Music is energy. Powerful energy that may inspire and move you to the great things. I remember in the childhood after the concerts where I was a listener, I ran home to play the instrument and find what I had been looking for a long time. As if the concert gave me some clue. And this is the energy of Music, “driving force”. Music is something magical, sometimes mystical. It is like a mirror. Everyone can find his reflection in it, his innermost. Music is therapy.  

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5. Who are your idols?

  - I like different music. It may be the classics, jazz, pop-music, a bit of rock, and of course, the national music, the love for which was cultivated by my father in the childhood by the concerts of the Kazakh Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments. My father was the Director and Creative Manager of this Orchestra. My father is my role model! “Idols” for me are such bodies who inspired me and made me to develop at different periods of my life. In high school, this is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky whose music is intellectual and emotional. Gaziza Akhmetovna Zhubanova as an inspirational model of a woman-composer, a woman-public figure. Batyrkhan Shukenov with A Studio Group, whose songs I knew by heart. During my student years, this is Sade who became like a Space for me. When I listen to this music, I dissolve, fly away to another reality. And many others. And of course, all those works that you play: I.S. Bach, W.Mozart, L. Beethoven, I.Brahms, S.Prokofiev, F.Chopin, S.Rachmaninov, F.Liszt are masterpieces. I love and admire a lot of musicians both of the past centuries and of their contemporaries both foreign and Kazakh.

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6. If you weren't a musician, what would you be?

 -  When I was a kid, I said everyone that I wanted to be a Manager of Meat Factory I was taught to say that. I was a kid, and did not understand the meaning.  

I think I would be a Solicitor or Psychologist. Many people called me “Solicitor” because every time I tried to understand the position of other person, to defend and justify))) I really liked watching various shows about legal proceedings and process of defense. I read a lot of detective stories by James Headley Chase, Agatha Christie and others. And even I went to study at the Law University. “Psychologist” is also a very interesting profession. The study of human nature: character, temperament, psychological aspects is fascinating. Moreover, new interpretations have been added now and taken from astrology and numerology which explain how numbers and planets affect a certain psychotype of a person. It is interesting and close to music and creativity.

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7. Do you think that musicians have all opportunities to become popular and successful in Kazakhstan (on globally)? Why?    

 - Sure! First of all, we are very talented! This is covered with blood. Secondly, we have a very high-quality professional music education as the teachers received their education in Russia, abroad and shared their skills here. Graduates of our specialized musical institutions are competitive and successful on the world musical stages. Thirdly, our traditional music-folklore is rich. You can transform it into new modern sounds, styles and genres giving a new breath and life. This is exactly what our talented musicians and composers do. Fourthly, new technology gives us the opportunity to learn fast and now: for example, you can learn rapidly the interested material via Internet, listen records of the Musicians when you study, communicate with a tutor, record a new video and send it to the tutor so that he can give you a new task at a distance. There are also various devices for technical moments while you perform the program: electronic notes, a pedal for turning notes. Various editors can help you both type notes and transpose or make notes for interpretation or strokes. 

I like the proverb: “If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse”.

8. What is the ideal life for you as a musician?

 -  Ideal life of the Musician is the life when you can express your inner world and your works attract public attention! You are invited to events, perform pieces and estimated properly as a Musician. The life when you interact with the Music and Musicians from other countries of the World. The life when you experiment and perceive, create new things and be a reason that the World will become more spiritual.