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Music & Artists

Composer Gabriela Lena Frank points to Wu Man's score at a commissioning workshop

© PETE CHECCHIA

Composer at Work
Composer Gabriela Lena Frank rehearses her composition Ritmos Anchinos with Wu Man at a commissioning workshop at Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. Collaboration between composers and performers is a hallmark of the Silk Road Project’s commissioning process.

Byambasuren Sharav

© STU ROSSNER

"I was an elementary school teacher and I began my life as a composer by writing children's songs. They were rare in Mongolia. As soon as I composed them, I sang them to the children."

- BYAMBASUREN SHARAV

Byambasuren Sharav

Composer (Mongolia) Byambasuren Sharav was born in a small settlement 150 miles southeast of the birthplace of Ghingis Khan. He learned to play the morin khuur from his father, and also took up the accordion. After becoming an elementary school music teacher, he began to compose children’s songs. In 1975, he entered the Ekaterinburg Conservatory in Russia, where he was taught to link his native folk music with European styles.

He has written three symphonies, four ballets, eight concertos for folk instruments with symphony orchestra, 23 soundtracks for films, 200 songs, 23 romances and numerous children’s songs. His music for folk instruments has been performed in many countries.

Sharav composed Legend of Herlen, a 2001 Silk Road Project commission.

Other Ensemble members from Mongolia
Khongorzul Ganbaatar