Silk Road Ensemble Artists

Khongorzul Ganbaatar
urtiin duu long song (b. 1974, Mongolia)

"The Silk Road Project has created opportunities for me to share Mongolian music with the world and to learn about the world. For instance, because of the Silk Road Project I can say, 'I love New York.' I hope that people who hear our music will someday say, 'I love Mongolia.'"

Khongorzul Ganbaatar began her professional musical studies at the age of twenty-two. She was raised in the Mongolian province of Khentii where singing urtiin duu [OOR tin DOO] (a Mongolian vocal genre, literally long song) is ubiquitous as entertainment. She never sang publicly during her adolescence. On an impulse, she auditioned for the Than Khentii Folk Ensemble and was accepted as a member of the group. In 1998 she moved to Ulaanbaatar to study at the University of Culture and Art under Professor Delghr. In the same year she entered her first musical competition, the Ulaanbaatar Competition of Professional Longsong Singers, and was awarded first prize. Since that time she has performed as a soloist with organizations including the Mongolia Theater of National Dance and Folksong and the Traditional Music and Dance Theater and has been a soloist at concerts in the United States, Japan and China.

Khongorzul Ganbaatar performs with the Silk Road Ensemble, appears on the album Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet and was featured in the photo exhibit entitled The Silk Road Ensemble: Portraits and Places.