The International Conference: "Music of the Turkic-Speaking World, Performance and the Master-Apprentice system of Oral Transmission” on the 3-4 February 2006 at SOAS, University of London, chaired by Dr Razia Sultanova with the keynote speaker Professor Hiromi Lorraine Sakata, was aimed to establish a new Study Group within the International Council for Traditional Music for regular meetings. The idea to run such an event came in August 2005 at the ICTM conference in Sheffield, when a large number of participants were attracted by the unity of thought and approach applied to neighbouring areas of research. It was considered important to pool our efforts to discover key issues of cultural phenomena of various musical traditions. More information: /group/111/post/report-activities-2005-2006

2nd Symposium: “Vocal Traditions of Free-metric Singing in Eurasia”,

 Institut für Turkologie, in Berlin 2010 by local Chair Dorit Klebe. More information:

/group/111/post/program-2nd-meeting-study-group-music-turkic-speaking-world-may-26-%E2%80%93-30-2010

3rd Symposium

“Popular Culture in Turkic Asia and Afghanistan: Performance and Belief”, at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge by local Chair Razia Sultanova.

More information: http://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/news-events/archive/dmes/performancebelief/programme.pdf

/group/111/post/report-3rd-symposium-ictm-study-group-music-turkic-speaking-world

4th Symposium

For the first time, the Study Group had met outside a European country for the 4th Symposium “Turkic world and neighbors similarity and differences in music”. Şehvar Beşiroğlu (Istanbul Technical University) and Okan Murat Öztürk (Bas̜kent University) organized the academic panels, while a large team of volunteers led by  Burcu Yıldız and  Şirin Özgün  (both from Istanbul Technical University).  Held in the historic Architecture Faculty of Istanbul Technical University, the conference was generously supported by TÜRKSOY. The Symposium’s programme consisted of some forty papers organized into eleven sessions. Professor Timothy Rice gave the keynote presentation. More information:  /sites/default/files/documents/Program%20MTSW%20Last%20Version.pdf

5th Symposium

The 5th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music of the Turkic-speaking World “Sound Phenomenon in Traditional Heritage of the Turkic-speaking World” was held on 21- 23d April 2016 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, at the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory. The geography of the latest Study Group meeting expanded to the East, closer to the place of origin of the Turkic civilization. The jubilee character of the event—celebrating ten years of intensive work by our Study Group—resulted in a series of commemorative awards for its most active members. Saule Utegalieva and her team organized the programme of all sessions, as well as a very intensive cultural programme and workshops. The keynote speaker Professor Karl Reichl (Bonn University) gave in his inspiring paper an impulse to the comparative philological-music studies of the medieval epic forms.  The symposium was generously sponsored by TÜRKSOY, the Foundation of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan—Leader of the Nation, and the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory. Scholars attended the Symposium from Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Russia, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, USA, and Uzbekistan. The Russian delegation included representatives from Moscow, Novosibirsk, and the Republics of Adygea, Tatarstan, Tyva, and Sakha (Yakutia).   More information:

/group/111/post/programme-5th-symposium-ictm-study-group-music-turkic-speaking-world

6th Symposium

The 6th Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Music of the Turkic-Speaking World took place at the State Conservatory of Trabzon University in Trabzon, Turkey, on October 15-16, 2018. The theme of the Symposium was “Dance Phenomenon: Innovation and Creativity in Studying and Performing” with the following three sub-themes: (1) Dance Traditions Through Times, Cultures and Ethnicities; (2) Forms of Accompaniment in Dance Traditions; (3) New Directions in the Study of Music of Turkic People.The two-day Symposium comprised of two keynote presentations, eleven papers and three poster presentations. It also included two workshops, master class, video film demonstration, new books and journals presentation, concerts, and a business meeting.The symposium attracted participants from eleven countries including Azerbaijan, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UK, and Uzbekistan. The Programme Committee consisted of Dr. Abdullah Akat (Trabzon Uni- versity, Trabzon, Turkey), Dr. Alla Sokolova (Adyghe State University, Maykop, Russia), Dr. Galina B. Sychenko (Novosibirsk, Russia / Rome, Italy). Two keynote speakers were Dr. Ann R. David (University of Roehampton, London, UK) and Dr. Catherine Foley (University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland). At the closing ceremony all Symposium contributors were awarded honorary diplomas by the Rector of the Trabzon University Prof. Dr. Emin Aşıkkutlu, leaving all participants with lovely memory on the remarkable Study Group event at the State Conservatory of Trabzon University, Turkey.