Silk Road Bayram Festival brings culture to Bloomington

A curtain of blue and red fabrics hung behind Sultan Memet on Sunday as his fingers flew over the strings of a tanbur, a long-necked instrument native to Turkey. The audience was drawn into the full sound of the instrument, a sound similar to that of multiple guitars being played at once, as Memet’s voice dropped and rose. Memet, a popular singer and composer in the Uyghur region near China, was a special guest at the Silk Road Festival held at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.\nThe festival, which is in its 15th year, was created by Central Eurasian Studies lecturer Shahyar Daneshgar and is meant to showcase the culture and music of countries along the historic Silk Road trade route that once stretched from China to Turkey. Daneshgar, a native of Iran, said events such as the Silk Road Festival enable people to shape their communities.\nStudents, community members and even visitors from as far away as Arkansas came to the three-hour festival. Sunflowers cheerily adorned the stage, along with a multicolored rug and various instruments native to various countries on the Silk Road. Bloomington residents made the red and blue curtains, which provided a colorful background for the energetic music.\n“(People) are always looking for cultural ideas,” he said. “The more we look for this, the more complete our culture becomes.”\nThe program began with a Tibetan song and dance and progressed through performances on instruments such as the kyl kobuz, a scratchy-sounding but soothing instrument native to Kazakhstan, and the button accordion. Before intermission, a fashion show gave audience members an idea of the garments worn in countries along the Silk Road. \nDaneshgar said he believes it is important to show people the cultures of the countries along the Silk Road, especially when war is the only image people may ever see of the Middle East.\n“While we are in these unpleasant waters,” he said, “we enjoy the music and cultures of these different places.”\nDaneshgar dedicated the event to his self-described “musical mentor,” Jacobs School of Music professor Mary Goetze, whom he met while in an ensemble through the Jacobs School. Goetze expressed a similar opinion of the festival, explaining that many people have false ideas about the area along the Silk Road.\n“With the region, there are so many misunderstandings,” she said. “We want to connect through music to build bridges of understanding so that larger numbers of people come to appreciate different cultures.”\nAn ensemble from the Moroccan Andalusian Classical Orchestra of Bloomington performed, and a few performers danced to pieces played by the Silk Road Ensemble, which Daneshgar directs and provides vocals and percussion for.\nOne of the dancers, Bloomington resident Shirin Baygani-Vakily, is originally from Iran. She and two men performed a piece on traditional courtship, in which a pursued woman ignores the pursuing man. Although it was her first time performing in the Silk Road Festival, Baygani-Vakily said dancing was her favorite part of the event.\n“As a Persian girl, it is traditional to dance at home with family,” she said. “It comes naturally with the music.”\nDaneshgar said organizing the event is a fairly smooth process. Finding sponsors to finance the festival is important, but the real challenge, he said, lies in finding visas for musicians outside of the country who want to perform. Because of this, Daneshgar said he tries to choose artists who are in the U.S.Despite the fact that coordinating the Silk Road Festival isn’t entirely easy, Daneshgar said he enjoys performing with and meeting musicians. When Sultan Memet arrived in Bloomington last Wednesday, Daneshgar said he took Memet with a group of other friends to the Turkish restaurant Casablanca Café, 402 E. Fourth St., where they sat outside. Memet ended up playing his tanbur, and after a while Daneshgar realized that a small group of customers in the restaurant had gathered to enjoy Memet’s music.\nBloomington resident Suad Gumus said while she came to give her children a taste of what her native country of Turkey is like, she also attends the festival for nostalgic reasons.\n“I enjoy seeing other cultures, and diversity among cultures,” she said. “But (many of us) came also to hear the music. It reminds us of home, of our families we miss.”