Mehan (2013)

Sirojiddin Juraev, dutar and Abbos Kosimov, doira
Composed by Sirojiddin Juraev (b. 1975)

“Mehan” displays the virtuosic potential of the two-stringed dutar in the hands of a master as well as the prominent role of usul, the metro-rhythmic cycle played on the frame drum (doira). “Mehan” juxtaposes two different usuls: the first in 4/4 and the second in 7/8, a meter rarely found in Western music but common in the traditional music of Tajikistan.

Sirojiddin Juraev is a master performer on long-necked lutes from Central Asia. Born and raised near the ancient city of Khujand, in northern Tajikistan, Sirojiddin learned to play the two-stringed dutar as a child and later studied with the great Uzbek master Turgun Alimatov. As a student at the Dushanbe Academy of Maqom, created by the Aga Khan Music Initiative in 2003, Sirojiddin also studied tanbur and sato (bowed tanbur) with ustad Abduvali Abdurashidov. Sirojiddin is active as a composer and arranger, and has created a body of new virtuoso works for dutar, tanbur, and sato. He performs both as a soloist and as a member of several ensembles, including Soriana Project, the Academy of Maqom, and Tajikistan’s State Shashmaqom Ensemble.

Abbos Kosimov was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, into a musical family. A disciple of the honored Uzbek doira player Tuychi Inogomov and winner of the Competition of Percussion Instruments of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Kosimov established his own doira school in 1994 and his ensemble, “Abbos,” in 1998. Kosimov performs internationally with Zakir Hussain and Randy Gloss’s percussion group Hand’s OnSemble and recorded with Stevie Wonder.