Toktakhunova Samarbyu
Samarbyu Toktakhunova, a soloist-instrumentalist of the Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments named after Karamoldo Orozov, is an outstanding komuz player and educator, a People's Artist of the USSR and the Kyrgyz SSR, a laureate of the State Prize named after Toktogul and the Lenin Komsomol Prize of Kyrgyzstan, a laureate of the XI World Festival of Youth and Students in Havana, a laureate of the first International Festival "Voices of Asia" in Almaty, and a professor at the Kyrgyz National Conservatory. She has dedicated over 50 years to the preservation and development of traditional musical heritage.
Samarbyu, a musician from God, a pearl among komuz players, was born on February 16, 1945, in the village of Kyzyl-Su in the Kemin district. Her love for music was with her from infancy. Her mother sang lullabies, and her grandmother Kymkaptaene played the komuz and temir-komuz wonderfully. From childhood, the girl sang, was a soloist in the school choir, and dreamed of becoming an actress. In the sixth grade, she heard radio broadcasts about classical music: she listened with great pleasure to Tchaikovsky's and Rachmaninoff's first piano concertos with orchestra. These broadcasts left a deep mark on the girl's soul. Samarbyu recalls that when she listened to this classical music, her soul turned inside out, and she wanted to run into the wide field, feeling a fullness of happiness. Her father understood music well and instilled in his daughter that she would definitely become an artist, like Myskal Omurkanova.
One day, seeing a komuz in the workshop of Kazakbay-usta and hearing a melody performed by his son, the komuz player Saparbai, Samarbyu was inspired to make a komuz and learn to play. Choosing a wooden block, hiding in a cornfield, she carved a hollow, made the top from cardboard, and instead of strings, she stretched strong black threads. The first melody "Bal zhakshee" by Myskal Omurkanova was played on her homemade instrument for her mother.
Jumabiyu apa was surprised and, realizing that her daughter was talented, began to help her. When Samarbyu was ten, her parents bought her a mandolin, and after finishing the 8th grade, her mother took her to the capital to the M. Kureneev Musical and Choreographic College.
This happened on August 29, 1960. The admission had long been completed, but Jumabiyu-apa pleaded with them to listen to her daughter. Poorly speaking Russian, she convinced the director Kokhanov and the teachers: Kogan, Asakeev, Vavilov, Ukubaev, that her daughter had "a good komuz and a good song." The girl passed the exam with excellent marks. One of the teachers convinced his colleagues to make an exception and accept Samarbyu. This was the young teacher Asanbek Asakeev, now an academician and professor at the Kyrgyz State Institute of Arts named after B. Beishenaliev.
Samarbyu was given a place in the college dormitory, clothing, shoes, and vouchers for three meals a day. In 1964, she graduated from the M. Kureneev Musical and Choreographic College in Frunze (now Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) in the komuz class. Her teachers were Asanbek Asakeev and Karagul Ukubaev.
Hardworking, persistent, and musically gifted, Samarbyu already performed in a komuz ensemble from her second year.
Her first major performance with the ensemble took place in Moscow, at the Palace of Congresses during a concert dedicated to the closing of the XXII Congress of the CPSU in 1961. Since then, she played at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses in programs with the most famous musicians of the Soviet Union. There were also 13 concerts in the "Russia" concert hall with Kazakh tenor Alibek Dnishev, in Minsk at the "Belarusian Autumn" festival she shared the stage with Lyudmila Zykina, and at the Bolshoi Theatre with Tamara Sinyavskaya.
From the second half of the 1960s, Samarbyu Toktakhunova performed with the State Orchestra of Kyrgyz Folk Instruments named after K. Orozov of the Kyrgyz National Philharmonic named after T. Satylganov. In the 1970s, she became its soloist. Her repertoire includes over 40 instrumental pieces for the komuz created by Kyrgyz musicians and composers. Throughout her career, she toured in Algeria, India, Canada, the USA, France, Japan, and other countries.
In the 1980s, she graduated from the Kyrgyz Institute of Arts named after B. Beishenaliev in Frunze.
She engaged in pedagogical work, first at the Kyrgyz Institute of Arts named after B. Beishenaliev, and from 1993 to 2008 at the Kyrgyz National Conservatory, rising from a regular teacher to a professor in 1995.
She is a professor in the Department of Folk Singing at the Kyrgyz National Conservatory named after K. Moldobasanov (Bishkek).
She previously taught at the Kyrgyz State Institute of Arts named after B. Beishenaliev. She has prepared dozens of professional musicians.
Laureate of the State Prize of the Kyrgyz SSR named after T. Satylganov (1984).
People's Artist of the USSR (1989).
Awarded the Order of "Manas" III degree, medals: "For Labor Valor," "Dank," "For Valorous Labor. In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of V.I. Lenin," "Veteran of Labor," "Friendship" of the Republic of Vietnam, the Gold Medal of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Mukhtar Auezov Prize, the Honorary Certificate of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR, the "Honor Belgesi" Certificate of the Republic of Turkey. Samarbyu Toktakhunova is an Honorary Citizen of Bishkek, Chui Region, Mongolia, Moldova, Turkey, and North Carolina, USA.
Women of Kyrgyzstan