On September 18, 2025, the Magtymguly Library in Kyiv hosted the art meeting "Sounds of the Dutar." The event focused on Turkmen folk instruments, the art of bakhshi, and our musical culture.
The event was attended by teachers and students from cultural and educational institutions, music schools, representatives of administration and library system of the Svyatoshinsky District, and Turkmen youth.
The director of the Magtymguly Library, who hosted the art meeting, spoke about the history of the library's founding and the cultural and educational activities of the Magtymguly Library Museum. A diplomat from the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Ukraine addressed the event participants and discussed the unique musical culture, the origin and development of the Turkmen school of composition, traditional national musical instruments, and the art of the bakhshi.
He paid special attention to the preservation and development of folk and national musical heritage, in which the art of the bakhshi represents an invaluable layer of Turkmen culture. He emphasized that the inclusion of the craft of dutar making, dutar performance, and the art of the bakhshi on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity is recognition of the bakhshi's invaluable contribution to world culture. The diplomat noted that the event is taking place on the eve of Independence Day and International Music Day.
The cultural event centers on the virtuoso performance of dutarist Serdar Derekov, a representative of the Turkmen diaspora in Ukraine, who performed folk melodies on the dutar.
Students and teachers from local music schools performed concert numbers, including a piano duet, a guitar trio, and a performance on the bandura, a national Ukrainian instrument.
Throughout the event, art meeting participants were shown thematic videos and a photo exhibition, and were also given a tour of the Magtymguly Museum.
In the lead-up to Turkmenistan's Independence Day, celebrated during the International Year of Peace and Trust, the participants demonstrated a genuine interest in the culture and art of the Turkmen people, emphasizing the importance of studying and promoting song and music, culture, and the need to strengthen friendship between peoples.
