MANGILIK EL ALYPTARY. 115 YEARS OF AKHMET ZHUBANOV

April 29 marks the 115th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding researcher of Kazakh folk music, musicologist, composer, conductor, People's Artist of the Kazakh SSR, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, Professor Akhmet Kuanovich Zhubanov.
Akhmet Zhubanov was born on April 29, 1906, in the Kosuaktam area, now the Aktobe region. As the composer recalled, the parents' house was always full of guests, talented akyns, musicians, connoisseurs of folk art, including the famous dombrists as Urazaly, Talym. The village teacher K. Ashgaliev, the writer Zh. Tlepbergenov and, of course, his elder brother - Kudaibergen Zhubanov - a Soviet philologist, Turkologist, one of the founders of scientific Kazakh linguistics, had a great influence on the formation of Zhubanov’s personality.

Akhmet Zhubanov devoted his entire life to studying the history of Kazakh folk music. He wrote scientific works and studies on the life and work of folk singers, kyuishi, and composers. Akhmet Kuanovich traveled to the most remote hinterlands of the country, where he met with the elders, writing down unique information first hand, constantly searching for materials in the dusty archives of cities and districts.
Akhmet Kuanovich laid the foundation for modern professional music of the Kazakh people - he adapted folk kyuis for orchestra, enriching them with complex instrumental symphonic compositions. It was A. Zhubanov who revealed to the world the genius of the great kyuishi Kurmangazy and named after him two of his projects – the State Conservatory in Almaty and the Orchestra of Kazakh Folk Instruments, most of whose repertoire consists of the works of Akhmet Zhubanov.
         Conducting active research, musical, social and pedagogical activity, A. Zhubanov was constantly engaged in professional music. In his creative toolkit, there are many works of various genres: these include symphonic works and operas, chamber-instrumental and choral compositions, songs and romances, music for dramatic performances and films.

Thanks to the musical genius of Akhmet Kuanovich, the repertoire of the Kazakh folk instruments orchestra includes works by Russian and foreign classical composers. Among them is the march of Chernomor from Glinka's opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila", Schubert's "Musical Moment" with Zhubanov's instrumentation, fragments of Tchaikovsky's opera "The Queen of Spades", Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tsar's Bride", Spendiyarov's "Preludes" and "Crimean Sketches". A. Zhubanov transcribed for the orchestra and instrumental compositions, songs and choirs by Koval, Pokrass, Chishko, Revutsky and other famous composers.
Akhmet Zhubanov's great contribution to the rich spiritual legacy of the Kazakh people was his works on the study of folklore. One of the gems of Kazakh musical science is a large-scale monograph "The life and work of Kazakh folk composers", published in 1942. The result of this research was the decision to award A. Zhubanov the degree of Doctor of Art History without defending his dissertation. The outstanding composer has authored more than 300 articles and reviews, 15 books. 
Akhmet Zhubanov opened to the whole world the variety and charming beauty of Kazakh folk musical instruments - dombra, kobyz, sybyzgy, zhetygen and many others. Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments named after Kurmangazy was established in 1933. Today it is a world-renowned collective that conquers classical music lovers all over the world.
In 2017, the First President of Kazakhstan N. A. Nazarbayev visited the new center "Zhubanovtar Alemi", built in Aktobe in order to promote the creative legacy of outstanding personalities of the Zhubanov dynasty and to educate creative children.

The collection of the Library of Elbasy contains publications dedicated to the life and creative work of the scientist, composer A. K. Zhubanov. Among them is the work of A. Zhubanov "Ğasyrlar pernesı". It contains essays of the scientist about the life and work of Kazakh folk composers: Kurmangazy, Dauletkerey, Abyl, Tattimbet, Kazangap and others. The book "Zamana būlbūldary" is about prominent sal-seri - Birzhan sal, Akan seri, Zhayau Musa and other major figures of the Kazakh song art.
By the centenary of A. Zhubanov, the book "Qazaq muzyka önerınıƞ ğūlamasy" by N. S. Ketegenova and A. K. Omarova, also presented in the Library of Elbasy, was published. The publication includes essays-memoirs of contemporaries, friends and students of A. Zhubanov, as well as articles by the composer himself.
 The book of memoirs "Omir tagylymdary" by Serik Kirabayev contains interesting facts from the life of prominent figures of the Kazakh people - M.Auezov, S. Mukanov, G. Musrepov, G. Mustafin, I. Omarov, A. Zhubanov, K. Zhumaliev, M. Gabdullin, A. Sembayev, A. Sharipov and others.