On 26 April 2009, a concert devoted to the 61st anniversary of Independence of the State of Israel was conducted in the Kazakh State Philharmonic Society. The concert was organized by the Embassy of Israel in Kazakhstan and the World Jewish Agency "Sokhnut". The Head of the Representation of the World Jewish Agency "Sokhnut" in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan Joseph Lebovich addressed the spectators with a welcoming speech and the Director of the Eurasian Department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Israel Garry Koren congratulated everyone with the holiday.



After the greeting the Kazak Folklore Orchestra "Otrar sazy" and its conductor, the winner of a number of international festivals Yuriy Dorohovskiy, took their place on the stage and the audience stood up for the national anthems of Kazakhstan and Israel. Then followed a chain of their magical performances of kuy "Aday" by Kurmangazy, medley from the masterpiece of American Musical Theatre "Fiddler On The Roof" by Jerry Bock, based on the stories of Sholom Aleichem (Sholem Naumovich Rabinovich), Kazakh folk melodies arranged by Alexander Zataevich, songs by Evgeniy Brusilovskiy and Isaak Dunaevskiy; Kazakh folk dance performed by the graduates of the choreographic college, two Jewish dances staged by Elena Suhetskaya for the choreographic group "Ospan"

Yuriy Dorohovskiy said: "Musicians are vulnerable people but they are able to perceive the culture of any ethnic group very well. What you saw here today is a new experience in art; we arranged Jewish melodies for the Kazakh folk instruments - dombra, kobyz, zhetygen. The folk orchestra can vibrantly feel and emotionally transmit the music of the other ethnicity. At this celebration I would like to suggest that these melodies will be presented to the orchestra "Otrar Sazy" as a gift. And some 450 people, congregated at the hall of the Philharmonic Society, answered to this proposition by encouraging applause. At the conclusion of the concert the orchestra performed the symbol of Kazakhstan, kuy "Sary- arka", and the laureate of the Republican vocal competition Almas Zhumagaliev sang the Jewish celebratory song "Hava Nagila".

Ludmila Starodubova