By: Madeleine Miyashiro
Last week, Alash, a touring Tuvan trio from southern Russia, visited Southern Adventist
University to perform a blend of traditional and modern music.
According to Alash’s official website, the Tuvan musicians have trained in xöömei [khoh-may] since childhood, a throat-singing technique that allows a person to sing multiple
pitches simultaneously. Alash has competed internationally in xöömei, winning several
awards, including first prize at Tuva’s International Xöömei Symposium in 2004.
The trio blends modern influences, such as the guitar and the folk-like melodies, with
traditional elements to create their own distinctive musical sound. In addition to xöömei,
the performers featured several unique instruments, such as the igil, a two-stringed
instrument with a sound like a cello, and the murgu, a flute with overtone pitches in the
treble range.
During the performance, Ayan Shirizhik, one of the trio’s performers, would switch between
playing the murgu and the shoor, a flute-like instrument. The other two performers, Bady-Dorzhu Ondar and Ayan-ool Sam, played both the guitar and the igil.
According to Sean Quirk, tour manager and interpreter for Alash, the music style reflects
their home country and is, in many ways, their “southern” music.
“We like to call it country music from another country,” Quirk said. “The songs are all about
horses and pretty girls and your homeland and your mom’s cooking.”
Quirk said he fell in love with Tuvan music in 2003 when he traveled to the Republic of Tuva,
a constituent subject of Russia, as part of the Fulbright scholar program, a U.S.
government-sponsored academic exchange program.
Quirk explained that he eventually met the performers and, after living in Tuva for a couple
of years, helped the trio travel to America as part of an exchange program.
“I helped them to come over here for the first time as part of an exchange program, to
showcase their amazing art,” Quirk said. “That turned into a yearly thing, two times, three
times a year, and that was 20 years ago.”
According to Quirk, making travel arrangements for Alash has become more challenging in
recent years after COVID. He said the group works months in advance to travel anywhere.
The unseen work he does to make Alash’s performances possible involves submitting their
visa applications, producing the tours and coordinating with each booking agency.
“It is honestly a miracle that they get to come and do what they do, because it was never
easy before during the best of times, in terms of global travel and global trust pre-COVID
and all that,” Quirk said. “But now it’s really extra hard, because countries seem to be so
much more stringent about whom they let in.”
In addition to musical performances, Alash members put on educational workshops to
introduce young people to Tuvan music.
Quirk said when Alash is not on the road performing, they are involved with music groups in
Tuva. Two Alash members play in the National Orchestra, and the third member instructs at
a throat-singing academy.
“[Shirizhik] and [Sam] are also in the National Orchestra back home, so they’re always
rehearsing and performing with that group, and then [Ondar] is the leader of the throat-singing academy,” Quirk said.
Carter Smith, a sophomore studying music theory and literature, commented on the clarity
Alash musicians achieved in their throat-singing.
“It’s really difficult to have throat singing be clean, because you’re fundamentally creating
multiple different pitches,” Smith said. “And so having one that’s really strong is incredibly
difficult, and they executed it perfectly the entire concert.”
When asked what his favorite part of the performance was, Eric Marsollier, a senior music
performance major, said, “Just listening to the overtones. To hear how they could
manipulate the sound with the way they move their tongue or shape their mouth to create
little overtones that sounded like a whistle.
”… To hear it live was just amazing,” he added. “I think that was the best part.”
According to Quirk, one of Alash’s primary goals is to raise awareness of Tuvan culture for
those who have never seen or heard of it before.
“I think the biggest mission is: number one, putting the name of Tuva on the map and
getting more and more people familiar with the beautiful culture that they represent,” Quirk
said, “and then also making sure to pass on that culture to the next generations.”
Quirk said he also wanted audience members to learn about the art of throat singing.
“I hope they leave with a newly awakened interest in a musical world that has existed for a
long time, and still very much exists and is growing and changing,” Quirk said.
