Young and talented dombyra players Temirlan Olzhabay and Yernat Nauryz became ambassadors of the culture of Kazakhstan for the Tokyo Olympics. This decision was made by Kazakh Ministry of Culture and Sports. They recently won the international festival Golden Time Talent, where they performed Vivaldi’s Summer from his Four Seasons arranged for a dombyra in the Baroque style. Now the guys are preparing for a creative evening of Kazakh music, which will soon take place in Turkey. It will feature folk songs and the best works of Kazakh composers. The duo ‘Temirlan & Yernat’ was founded in 2017. During this time, in addition to Golden Time Talent, they won a gold medal at an international competition in the United States. They also performed in Turkey, Israel, Europe, as well as with Kazakh singer Dimash Kudaibergen in China. The musicians admit that the main goal for them is to popularize the Kazakh traditional instrument all over the world and give listeners the opportunity to enjoy the unique sound of dombyra.
“The emotions we feel are great! It’s probably not our victory, but the one of a dombyra. We always say that it is dombyra that won. We can’t describe our feelings with words right now, but of course we are glad. We’re getting a lot of offers from all over the place now, but we are going to do things the way we planned, without haste, and make you happy,” Olzhabay said.
Translation by Assem Zhanmukhanova
Editing by Galiya Khassenkhanova
