Music | Film
Qyrq Qyz (Forty Girls)
Subscriptions
Single Tickets
BAM and Aga Khan Music Initiative present
Directed by Saodat Ismailova
Music by Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky
Across the steppes of Central Asia, modern bards still sing the tale of Gulaim, the teenage warrior who defended ancient clans from Eastern invaders with the help of her qyrq qyz, or 40 girls, Amazons of Turkic legend. Enduring for centuries in a male-dominated epic tradition, this powerful matriarchal narrative comes to full-throated life in the Aga Khan Music Initiative’s multimedia retelling, conceived and directed by internationally acclaimed Uzbek film and video artist Saodat Ismailova (40 Days of Silence).
As the next generation of Turkic female poets and storytellers sing Gulaim’s legend–accompanying themselves on dutar (two-stringed lute), kyl-kiyak (two-stringed bowl fiddle), and jaw harp–Ismailova’s mesmerizing video, scored by acclaimed Tashkent-based composer Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky, weaves an emotional tapestry of legendary female power.
Scenography by Kamilla Kurmanbekova
Movement and lighting design by Séverine Rième
Costumes by Hilola Sher
Produced by the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture
Leadership support for music programs at BAM provided by the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund.
Meredith Monk and her peerless vocal ensemble present a new work.
Revered South African jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim commemorates this near-mythical group.