MUGAM ACADEMY

Abgul Mirzaliyev is one of the young names in Azerbaijani mugam. Born on 27 November 1986 in the village of Sixzarli in Samaxi District, Mirzaliyev took second place in the mugam competition conducted with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in 2007.

Graduating from Asaf Zeynalli Music College in 2009, he was admitted to the Music Academy, where he attended classes of People's Artist Zabit Nabizada. He starred in the film "The Ambassador of Dawn".

In an interview with our magazine, Abgul spoke about his work, mentors, colleagues and more.

- Typically, young people are more interested in pop music. How come you chose such a difficult musical genre as mugam?

- I've been interested in mugam since childhood. I love the abovementioned genres too, but mugam is dearer to me. That's why I was eager to study it. This interest and desire prompted me to enroll in Samaxi Humanitarian College in 2005, where I attended classes of Camal Dadasov. In 2007, I applied to a televised mugam festival conducted with the support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, and after selection, I represented Samaxi there. It was precisely because of this competition that I was transferred to continue my musical education in the class of Zabit Nabizada at Asaf Zeynalli Music College. Upon completion of the selection, I entered the conservatory and successfully graduated from it. I listened to the great masters and tried to learn something from them. As for the difficulties, mugam is extremely solid and sedate music. For a young artist, singing mugam is a very responsible task. And seeing your peers among mugam listeners is an extra incentive. I note that if a person has at least a drop of Azerbaijani blood and love of the country, he will certainly fall in love with mugam.

- Most singers believe that there's a difference between young solo performers on the air and participants in mugam competitions. According to them, the path a singer has to go in 30 years takes participants in mugam competitions just 4-6 months. Did you have the same thing?

- There's a grain of truth in this. For example, although at classes we study Bayati-Shiraz, Rast and other mugams, we have no chance of presenting them to the audience. Thanks to this contest, we got a chance to demonstrate all we learnt and learn something new in a week. We tried to learn new ghazals and mugams. On my own behalf and on behalf of my colleagues, I thank the head of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Mehriban Aliyeva, for organizing this contest. This competition was a great school for us, I would say - an academy.

- Would you be able to become so popular in such a short period of time without getting on this competition?

- I don't think I would be able to gain such fame among the people without the competition. Our mentor says that this competition gave me a great chance. And my greatest desire is for Allah not to deprive me of my voice, to multiply love for this art in my heart and to give me the strength to use all my abilities and skills not to capitalize on this, but to improve my skills. As a child, I thought mugam was an unattainable summit. Thank God, I was able to comprehend this art.

- Which of your performances was the most successful in the mugam competition?

- All performances were remembered for excitement and responsibility. But based on the attitudes and opinions of the audience, I feel that Sirvan Sikastasi was the most memorable.

- In one of his interviews, People's Artist Alibaba Mammadov criticized some of the former contestants. According to him, after the contest they stopped working on themselves and all their thoughts are about earning as much as possible and buying an apartment and a car. And what is your attitude to that?

- I fully agree with Alibaba muallim. He is a great master and has always advised us to think about serving not ourselves, but art. After all, people remain in arts even after departing this world. In addition, compared to other genres mugam has no big returns. After all, hardly anyone is willing to listen only to mugam and folk songs at weddings. Usually they limit themselves to a couple of performances. On the other hand, even though we are artists, we also need cars and apartments.

- Most young mugam performers also appeal to pop songs. Have you never had such intentions?

- I love pop music too. Everybody doesn't necessarily have to perform mugam. The main thing is to present a professional performance. Sometimes they start to gossip that someone doesn't have enough strength for mugam and has taken up pop songs. But this doesn't mean that pop music is an easy genre. As you noted above, mugam is quite a difficult art. Therefore, to some extent, people beware of criticism. Although I have not recorded pop songs, sometimes I perform them at popular celebrations.

- You got a role in the movie "The Ambassador of Dawn". From whom did you received the offer?

- Nadir Axundov informed me that there's such a movie and they want to invite me to star in it. I gladly accepted the invitation and performed the role of Sattar in it. However, I myself didn't like my performance in this film. I lip-synched and thought it would be inserted into the picture. But when I watched the film, it turned out that my performance was mounted live without any changes. Had I known about it in advance, I would have prepared even better. But in any case, thank you for the invitation. This is a kind of history, although people always dream of staying in it in the most favourable way.

- Do you think one can demonstrate mature mastery in mugam while being still too young?

- You know, I can't sufficiently clearly answer this question. After all, they might object how can you judge at what age maturity comes if you yourself are not yet fifty? I can only say that, in the opinion of our mentors, until thirty years, a singer learns, from thirty to fifty - he sings, and after fifty - he already knows about certain genres. Naturally, over the years you become more and more attached to mugam and comprehend it. During one lesson of Alim Qasimov, I asked him to teach me to perform the Zabul mugam. The master said I was too young for this and that to perform this mugam, I should be at least 30, because this mugam must be felt. I agreed with my mentor as this takes years.

- Do you often spend time in foreign travel?

- After the contest, there was a lot of travel. Now we go abroad on the initiative of the state. I witnessed the audience listening to our mugam with love. The interest in mugam is limitless. The attitude of listeners is especially different in Tabriz. They know all our performers. And in European countries they know and love Alim Qasimov. During concerts in foreign countries viewers at first just watch with interest what two instrumentalists and one singer are doing on stage, and then we see how much they enjoy it. This shows the magical power of our mugam.

- Are you going to perform a solo concert?

- I am. But there're some financial problems. If they're resolved, the concert, Inshallah, will take place, and I think the viewers will be satisfied with my performance.