Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Samarkand officially accepted the new status of “Cultural Capital of the CIS”. 

On 5 April 2024, as part of the ceremony to present the city with a certificate confirming the new status of the city of Samarkand, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation Mikhail Shvydkoy and others spoke about Samarkand and the project “Cultural Capital of the Commonwealth,” the CIS Executive Committee said.

Mikhail Shvydkoy, co-chairman of the Interstate Fund for Humanitarian Cooperation of the CIS member states, special representative of the President of the Russian Federation:

— From the 2750-year history of Samarkand, I have known this beautiful city for about 50 years, and every year it changes, becomes more beautiful while remaining that great city that has gone down in world history. Every time I come to Samarkand, I remember the words of Alexander the Great: “Everything I have heard about Samarkand is all true, absolutely everything! Except for one thing: he turned out to be more beautiful than I could have imagined!”

And this is indeed true, therefore, handing over an indefinite document to the city administration (since now Samarkand is forever included in the project “Cultural Capitals of the Commonwealth” - editor), I noted that Samarkand, with its numerous architectural monuments, museums and theaters, is the cultural capital of not only a year, but forever. It is also gratifying that Samarkand took the baton from St. Petersburg, which is rightfully the cultural capital of the Russian Federation. By the way, the governor of St. Petersburg conveyed warm congratulations to the residents and administration of Samarkand,” said the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation.

Mikhail Shvydkoy also added that the “Cultural Capital of the Commonwealth” project has been implemented since 2010 and over these years it has become a real basis for promoting the idea of a common cultural space and dialogue between cultures of the CIS countries. In different years, Russian cities of Ulyanovsk, Voronezh and St. Petersburg, Belarusian Gomel and Brest, Kyrgyz Osh and Karakol, Tajik Kulyab and Dushanbe received certificates conferring the status of “Cultural Capital of the Commonwealth” in different years. And now the ancient city of Samarkand is on this list. He became the 19th in a row.

I would like to especially note that the event on the occasion of assigning the status of “Cultural Capital of the Commonwealth” to Samarkand was held brightly with the participation of creative teams from the CIS member countries. Artists from Russia presented an unusual surprise to the Samarkand audience. During their performance, the vocal ensemble “Voronezh Girls” unexpectedly began to sing in Uzbek, performing a verse of the famous song “Namangan Apples”.

Anna KOVRIGINA, director and artistic director of the Voronezh Girls ensemble:

- I have been to Samarkand many times. During Soviet times, we toured Uzbekistan every two years. They performed concerts not only in Tashkent, but also in the Karshi steppe, Navoi, flew to Nukus, Namangan, Fergana, Bukhara and, of course, performed in Samarkand. He has changed a lot since then. 17 representatives of our large team came to the ceremony in Samarkand with me.

This is not the first time we have performed within the framework of the “Cultural Capital of the Commonwealth” project. We visited Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. Before traveling to Uzbekistan, which for the first time received the status of “Cultural Capital of the Commonwealth,” we decided that we had to please the local public. Therefore, as a surprise, we performed a verse of the famous song “Namangan Apples” in Uzbek. This number was not announced in the event program, the more sincere were the emotions of the audience. Looking at their smiles and joyful faces, we realized that the surprise was a success. Our girls not only sang in Uzbek, but also danced accordingly. In addition to this number, the girls performed Russian folk songs “Look, what beauty” and “Kalinka”.

Separately, I would like to note the creativity of artists from Uzbekistan. For many years we have been friends with the People’s Artist of Uzbekistan Farukh Sadykov, he is a most talented conductor. By the way, three years ago he came to our concert and performed as a conductor of the Russian academic orchestra. I am glad that musical traditions in Uzbekistan are not only becoming stronger and preserved, but are also being passed on to a new generation. During the concert in Samarkand, we became acquainted with the skills of young talents. For example, I liked the energetic playing of the doira by the students of the “Zarafshon” ensemble of the Samarkand regional children’s school “Barkamol Avlod”. The folklore and ethnographic ensemble “Chavki” also won over with its color.

Odil Rustamov, director of the Samarkand regional branch of the Philharmonic:

- To become the cultural capital of the entire Commonwealth of Independent States for a whole year is a great honor and responsibility, which we accept with great joy and gratitude. 120 artists came to our region for the ceremony on the occasion of assigning a new status to Samarkand as part of delegations from 7 countries - Tajikistan, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. The event was held at the highest level. Just look how much applause the artists received. It is gratifying that many of them were dedicated to our creative teams, who once again showed their professionalism. By the way, representatives of our Philharmonic performed in China last year, and even earlier in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. I am sure that during this year a number of cultural events will be held in Samarkand with the participation of representatives of the Commonwealth. They will not only diversify the cultural life of the tourist city, but will also help establish contacts between artists, painters, and musicians.

Indeed, during this year Samarkand will become one of the main platforms for creative meetings of cultural and artistic figures of the Commonwealth. According to tradition, a gala concert will be held at the end of the year, at which the results of the implementation of the project “Samarkand - the cultural capital of the CIS” will be summed up.