Riad Mammadov, piano
Ehtiram Huseynov, khananda / daf
Aliaga Sadiev, tar
Kamran Karimov, nagara
Gorkhmaz Akhundov, tar

Vocal ensemble QUESTA MUSICA
Art director – Maria Grilihes

Maria Grilihes, soprano
Daria Hrisanova, soprano
Kaleria Kovalenko, mezzo-soprano
Andrey Averyanov, tenor
Evgeny Sapelov, tenor
Mikhail Miloslavsky, bass

Petr Ivshin, drums
Anton Gorbunov, double bass
Mikhail Smirnov, percussion
Georgy Mansurov, electronica/clarinet


At Zaryadye Hall, pianist Riad Mammadov presents mugam, one of the oldest music genres of Azerbaijan. The term “mugam” comprises both a genre, a scale, a complicated improvised vocal-instrumental piece, and a kind of music philosophy. In 2008, UNESCO included mugam in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

The is the best at new and fresh jazz-mugham genre, that at the same time is combined with such music styles as cool, be-bop, funk, blues, dubstep connecting this mix with hip-hop subculture.

Listeners who were bred in European music traditions can’t help but feel something “psychedelic” about mugam. No wonder: this is a strange, endless, and ever developing musical fabric. There’s always certain feel of incompleteness to it, for mugam players use 72 micro tones within octave, while they deliberately delay the final note of the seria.

Vocal and instrumental mugams are widespread in Azerbaijan. The style can be fused with jazz or symphony music, or rather any kind of music, quite naturally.

The creator of the project pianist and musicologist Riad Mammadov joins forces with classical and ethnic musicians to perform a unique programme that fuses mugam, jazz and modern music.

Azerbaijani folk music is featured, as well as pieces by Guillaume Du Fay, Bach, and Debussy.