Uzbekistan’s Bakhshi festival awards Iranian musician

Iranian musician Hossein Valinejad has won an award at the 2nd International Bakhshi Art Competition, known as Bakhshi Art Festival, held in Nukus, Uzbekistan.

Valinejad, from the city of Shirvan, Iran’s northeastern province of North Khorasan, also received three plaques of honor at the festival.

The instrument that Valinejad plays is dotar which is “a traditional long-necked two-stringed lute widely played in Iran and Central Asia.”

As the narrator of east Iranian music culture, Valinejad has been trained by Soltan Reza, Ali Bakhshi Gol-Afrouz, and Davoud Bakhshi-Gilani.

Iranian dotar player is the recipient of various accolades from various national and international music festivals before, including an honorable mention from the Silk Road International Ethnic Music in Uzbekistan in 2019.

More than 100 participants and guests from 22 countries took part in the international festival, including representatives of such organizations as UNESCO, TURKSOY, distinguished guests, and experts in the field of local heritage, science, art and other spheres, as well as representatives of various domestic and foreign media.

The Bakhshi Art Festival aims at glorifying oral folk art, preserving it and bringing it to future generations.

The ceremony of awarding the winners took place on September 20 in the central amphitheater of the city of Nukus.

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