11 December 2024
Almaty, Kazakhstan

I never thought I’d quite find myself on the top of a mountain in Kazakhstan with bitter, icy winds blowing above the thick Almaty smog. As I learned from my travels in mainland China, smog makes for beautiful light but not perhaps for ideal living conditions- still, there has been little apart from perfection during these last five days in Kazakhstan, a country of (predictably) warm hospitality and brilliant talent, but also, slightly less predictably, a cosmopolitan, modern culture and incredible nature.

I’m here on business, so to speak. Our Academy of Music is forging closer ties with global institutions and that includes the Kurmanghazy Kazakh National Conservatory, as well as recruiting the top young Kazakh musicians to join our undergraduate program. It’s easy to say ‘top’ when one has an easy choice, but the top music schools in this country produce an inexhaustible supply of world-class young talents, and the energy I experienced during my days here has been insatiable and incredibly inspiring. This is all also largely to composer Sanzhar Baiterekov who proved more than just a ‘connection’ in the country but possibly the world’s greatest host- arranging meetings with schools as well as a lecture on my own work this morning at the Conservatory, and an unforgettable trip up into the Tian Shan mountains.

As the year turns soon and various exciting events approach – the European premiere of The Once and Future (2021) which was rapturously received during my lecture here, as well as the Berlin premiere of Russia: Today (2020) which I decided not to show at the lecture due to the very sensitive neutrality of Kazakhstan in world affairs these days, I am also incredibly grateful for connections in, and through, music- our world is incredibly small and Sanzhar’s expansive introduction to the musical world of his native country has been an inspiration to take into 2025.