7 May 2020
The Music Lovers Club: 12 years of Sustainable Cultural Activity
On the International Museum Day in May 2008The Museum of Musical Culture of Azerbaijan launched the Music Lovers Club. Firstly it was called Classical Music Lovers Club to differentiate its profile from folk music. Since May 2008 this Club has had its meetings on the first Wednesday of every month. This activity has been sustainable indeed as during almost 12 years it knew no break until the beginning of the present quarantine! There was neither break because of ‘season’ like in theatres, nor because of vacations or holidays like in educational institutions. Indeed, museum is open all the year around and people need cultural activities and entertainment all the year around. But because of the corona virus pandemia in March, April and May 2020 the Club meetings were canceled.
For the Club participants and visitors the Museum organizes concerts, meetings with different musicians, the watch of musical films, and other events often according to their choice: people are offered to answer the questions of the simple questionnaire where they are asked about their wishes – which music would they like to listen to, whom would they like to meet, which topics would they prefer at future meetings, - and for the next meetings their answers are taken into consideration as much as possible.
Firstly the venue for the Club meetings was exclusively The Niyazi Museum, a brunch of the Museum of Musical Culture of Azerbaijan. Niyazi (full name is Niyazi Taghizade-Hajibeyov, 1912-1984) was prominent Azerbaijani conductor and composer. Besides, he was very charismatic person remembered by many as a man of special talents, temperament, character, and habits, such as hospitality, ability to discover the gifted youth, and magic artistic attractiveness. Therefore his apartment was always open not only for mature Azerbaijani musicians, but for the young talents, which later became the key figures in music of Azerbaijan, and also for the intelligencia and artistic elite of the former USSR and the world. His guests were Yma Sumac (the Peruvian singer), Ann Shine (the American pianist), Nazim Hikmet (the Turkish poet), Idil Biret (Turkish pianist), Mukarram Berk and Gurer Aykal (Turkish conductors), Adnan Saygun and Necil Kazim Akses (Turkish composers), Parvaneh and Afsaneh (Irani singers), Arkadiy Raikin (famous Soviet comic actor), Mstislav Rostropovich (then Soviet cellist) with his wife Galina Vishnevskaya (singer), Tikhon Khrennikov (Russian Soviet composer), Tamara Sinyavskaya (Russian singer), Luvasanjambyn Mordorj (Mongolian composer), etc. Therefore, to follow this tradition we managed the Clubs meeting here,
The space of the apartment is not big, so the number of visitors can participate at an event simultaneously is maximum 70. Nevertheless the Music Lovers Club in the Niyazi Museum is truly regarded as a small cultural.
To introduce place, or space, diversity, we began to organize meetings in our other venues: the new residence of the Music Museum, and in its another branch, The Gara Garayev House Museum (opened in 2018).
We have special attention to the feedback of the Club activities. People are offered to fill in a very simple questionnaire with few questions:
1. Which themes do you prefer for the next meetings?
2. Whom of artistic community would you like to meet?
3. Where have you know from about the Club meetings?
4. Other wishes, recommendations, or notes?
We try to response their recommendations as much as possible and invite those musicians they wish to meet, or speak on those topics which are interesting for them. We invite musicians of different ranks and they willingly response us. Among them are very notorious musicians, such as chair of Azerbaijani Composers Union, rector of Baku Music Academy, honoured composers, conductors, pianists, violinists, singers, ballet dancers, mature musicians and young talents, etc., including those who come from abroad: Azerbaijani musicians living and working in other countries, and foreigners, for example, French composer and conductor Laurent Petitgirard.
All the events are free of charge. This not only creates the opportunities for those categories of people who can hardly buy expensive tickets to attend concerts, but do not want to find themselves excluded from cultural activities, for example the retired people, etc. but gives them the opportunity of 1) involvement into cultural life, and 2) of communication. I have found that although there are a lot of opportunities for wide communication through various social nets (facebook, for example), although internet provides us opportunities of virtual tours to the museums, although we can listen and watch concerts on TV and YouTube, people need live communication within cultural environment.
I suppose, that the Museum and museum like spaces invite people to sincere communication, they want to speak their minds, share their memories, and feelings.
Many people have become regular participants of the Club attending its events for long years.
Last year we have witnessed active discussions on the general definition of MUSEUM. There are a lot of interesting suggestions. I would like to stress the attention on the point that, besides everything, MUSEUM’s functions and purposes include the care about the quality of life. Through giving people easy access to the collected by the Museums spiritual, material, artistic values, and providing information as detailed as possible about them, through organizing very special space, where people can stay enjoying it, museums can do our lives better. To conclude, I would like to say, that the Music Lovers’ Club under The Museum of Musical Culture of Azerbaijan serves this idea.
This month we celebrate 12 years of the Club’s activity!
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