Where does one of the world’s oldest orchestra live?

The orchestra of folk musical instruments named after Said Rustamov is one of the most important subdivisions of the Azerbaijan State Television and Radio. During our filming, team leader Faig Sadikhov held a rehearsal for recording the next work. It should be noted that the repertoire of the orchestra is constantly expanding, so the musicians gather several times a week, rehearse, then record. And so it has been going on for 88 years. Yes, yes, you heard it right! It is this age of the first folk instrument orchestra in the East, which has been playing from the day it was founded on notes.

On one of the days in March of 2015, twenty professional musicians teamed up for the orchestra to create music. The band was founded on the initiative of young enthusiasts, each of whom is truly in love with their profession. The main goal of "Bishkek Big Band" orchestra is to introduce a completely new direction into Russian musical culture, including jazz arrangement of famous Kyrgyz works, modernization of local musical traditions, enrichment of the cultural life of the country and access to the international scene.

A big band is not the first brainchild of the maestro Artur Orenburgsky. In his creative biography, there are both the orchestra of the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and the symphonic orchestra of Almaty akimat. This big band exists in the framework of the educational process of the Temirbek Zhurgenov Kazakh Academy of Arts. And Mr. Orenburgsky has headed this orchestra since 2008. According to him, the work here is different from the activities in professional teams and has its own characteristics.