Sabá thrills audience with taste of Central Eurasia

Sabá, a Bloomington based Central Eurasian music group, performed at the Indiana Memorial Union's Whittenberger Auditorium Sunday afternoon. The concert was free and open to the public. The concert, which was co-sponsored by several different departments within the university along with the Echo World Music Institute, was entitled "Breeze of the East." \nThe performance was preceded by an exhibition of poetry, costumes and artifacts from several central Eurasian countries, including Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This display was followed by the afternoon's musical festivities. The program started off with kazakh folk music by guest artist Talant Mawkanuli, who sang and played the dombra (a kazakh string instrument). This was followed by perhaps the highlight of the evening, with music professor Tom Walsh on the saxophone and Hakan Ali Toker (a member of Sabá) on the piano. The object of this piece was to use Western instruments to improvise on traditional Central Eurasian music. This was done both effortlessly and expertly by both musicians, who deservingly received thunderous applause at the conclusion of the piece. \nNext came Sabá's arrival on stage, resulting in exquisite Eurasian music for the next hour. The group consists of Nasrin Farrokh, a native of Iran with a graduate degree in opera directing from IU, Shahyar Daneshgar, a native of Iran who is a research associate at the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center at IU, Megan Weeder, a native of New Jersey who is a professional violinist and also plays the kemancha and saz (Central Eurasian musical instruments), Hakan Toker, a native of Turkey who is a professional pianist and also plays the kanun (a Turkish string instrument), and Joseph Donnely, who plays the flute and clarinet. \nIt was not long before this group established a rhythm which the audience grooved to. Farrokh and Daneshgar (the vocalists) sang with passion and enthusiasm in several different languages. The group performed music from Azerbaijan, Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Turkey. The highlight of Sabá's performance was undoubtedly "Mikham Beram Koon." This Persian folk song was beautifully sung by Farrokh with Weeder on the violin, Donnely on the clarinet, Toker on the piano and Daneshgar on percussion. For six minutes, the audience was enthralled by this traditional Persian tune which reverberated through the walls of the auditorium, courtesy of Farrokh's voice. \nThe last piece on the program was a fast-paced Azerbaijani duet sung by Farrokh and Daneshgar. The audience was so enthralled by the performance that they insisted on an extra tune to be performed after the duet. Sabá complied with yet another fast paced Azerbaijani duet which captivated the audience even more. \nThe concert gave the audience a sample of the exquisite musical traditions of Central Eurasia. The musicians involved were all extremely talented and proved that when it comes to music there are no borders or boundaries. It was a fulfilling cultural and aesthetic experience.