Land Of Fire Uncovered In New London Festival

- First ever festival of Azerbaijani culture in the capital -
- Artists including Gidon Kremer, Tair Salakov,
Shahin Novrasli and Rena Effendi showcased over three-months -

21 October 2009: For the first time Azerbaijan's most celebrated artists will have their work showcased during a new London festival encompassing jazz, classical music, photography, poetry, film and art. The BUTA Festival of Azerbaijani Arts (www.butafestival.com) takes place from 25 November until 7 March and is organised by BUTA Art Centre (www.buta.ru), a foundation dedicated to promoting Azeri culture to the wider world. The festival includes world-famous musicians, artists, poets and photographers including renowned violinist Gidon Kremer; the artist Tair Salakhov; award-winning jazz musicians Shahin Novrasli and Tim Garland and photographer Rena Effendi. The festival will provide Londoners with a fantastic opportunity to discover Azerbaijan's rich cultural offering and learn more about a country still unfamiliar to many.

Known as the "Land of Fire" for its position as one of the world's most important sources of oil, Azerbaijan is a young country with ancient traditions and a rich cultural heritage. At the beginning of the 20th century Azerbaijan was producing half the world's oil turning Baku, its capital into a dynamic boomtown. Twenty years after the fall of the USSR, Baku is once again thriving and its musicians and artists are revelling in their newfound freedom of cultural expression. Mugham, Azerbaijan's native musical style blends east with west and has been adapted and combined with music of all kinds from jazz to hip hop. The country is also one of the few ex-Soviet states with a long heritage of classical music of its own, perhaps only Russia can rival it for quality. The country's visual art is now being recognised as internationally significant - artist Tair Salakhov's work was given a major retrospective in Moscow earlier this year and award-winning photographer Rena Effendi recently showed work at the Istanbul Biennial.

Director of the BUTA Festival said: "For this inaugural festival, we have invited the leading performers and artists from Azerbaijan to London for what we hope is the beginning of an exchange of artistic ideas between the two countries. We also hope the festival encourages fresh perspectives on Azerbaijan and that visitors to the many events feel they have discovered our country through its culture."

The highlights of the BUTA Festival of Azerbaijani Arts include:
	Montreux jazz festival winner and rising star Shahin Novrasli http://shahinnovrasli.com with guest star Tim Garland at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Wednesday 25 November and at the 606 Club with Tim Garland and bass player Malcolm Creese on Thursday 26 November. Novrasli's music is a synthesis of Azeri mugham melodies and jazz and combines the two cultures of East and West.
	Kino Kino! at Pushkin House on Thursday 27 November celebrates the work of the Baku-born scriptwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov whose films include Urga which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1991 and Burnt by the Sun which won an Oscar in 1995 and gave him the international recognition he deserved. The evening includes a screening of White Sun of the Desert.
	Nigar Hasan-Zadeh http://nigarhasanzadeh.com is a female Muslim poet, originally from Baku but now living in London. She has been rated among the top 10 foreign poets in London by the British Library and she has made recordings of her work for their archive. She will be reading from Silver, a collection of her poetry published in 2007, and from a new book Mute Fairy Teller and White Bird Nara, which will be published shortly.
	Oil & Jazz Night at the EBRD on Wednesday 9 December. Azerbaijan today presents an intriguing clash between ancient heritage and the global rush for oil and gas. Oil & Jazz explores this rich contrast of imagery as a new way of interpreting jazz music which is embedded in the soul of Azerbaijan. Visual DJ's will use computerised image library to produce a visual interpretation of a live jazz performance. Montreux winning pianist Isfar Sarabsky will play alongside violinist Sabina Rakcheyeva, the first Azerbaijani to attend the Julliard School in New York.
	A retrospective of work by the artist Tair Salakhov at Sotheby's from 18 - 25 February. This Azeri-born artist, now in his 80th year, is considered a key figure in the history of Russian art. From the 1950s onwards he challenged the conventions of the state-approved 'socialist-realism' style which dominated Soviet art and instead created his own 'severe style' which peeled away the gloss of earlier Soviet Art. He also championed the work of Western artists in Russia including Robert Rauschenberg who was a close friend of the artist's.
	Rena Effendi http://www.refendi.com is an award-winning photographer whose new book Pipe Dreams follows the lives of people living along 1,700km of oil pipeline through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, documenting the effect of the oil industry on people's lives. Her book will be launched at Frontline on Friday 11 December when she will also give a talk about her work, and an exhibition will follow at HOST Gallery opening on Thursday 17 December. On 12 January she will be talking about her work at the gallery.
	Azeri Food at the Slow Food Market, South Bank Square from 19 - 22 December. Long before fusion food became fashionable, the kitchens of Azerbaijan were synthesizing a blend of styles to create a unique cookbook of their own. On offer will be the delicious "piti" broth of mutton and chickpeas; marinaded "shashlyk" kebab as well as "plov", a classic rice dish with lamb, onion and dried fruit, seasoned with saffron and cinnamon.
	The internationally celebrated violinist Gidon Kremer http://www.gidon-kremer.com will perform a programme of music by the Azeri composer Garayev at Cadogan Hall accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
	Gala Concert- The festival will close with a gala concert on 7 March at the Royal Festival Hall. The first half of the concert will showcase music by classical Azeri composers such as Hajibekov, Amirov, Melikov and Garayev performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Violinist Shlomo Mintz will perform during the second half of the concert.

Press information
Press releases and high resolution images can be downloaded from www.kallaway.co.uk/buta.htm

For further information please contact
Anna Cusden:
020 7221 7883
anna.cusden@kallaway.co.uk

Listings Information for the BUTA Festival of Azerbaijani Arts

Shahin Novrasli & Tim Garland
Date: Wednesday 25 November
Venue: Queen Elizabeth Hall
Address: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX
Tel: 0844 875 0073
Web: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/gigs-contemporary/
tickets/shahin-novrasli-49381
Price: £18.50 £15 £12.50
Time: 7:30pm

Shahin Novrasli, Tim Garland and Malcolm Creese
Date: Thursday 26 November
Venue: 606 Club
Address: 90 Lots Road London, SW10 0QD
Tel: 0207 352 5953
Web: http://www.606club.co.uk/index.htm?189,71
Price: £8
Time: Doors - 7pm Music 8 pm -12pm 2 sets with break

Rustam Ibragimbekov - Screening of White Sun of the Desert
Date: Friday 27 November 2009
Venue: Pushkin House
Address: 5A Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2TA
Tel: 020 7269 9770
Web: http://www.pushkinhouse.org/en/events

Nigar Hasan-Zadeh
Date: Tuesday 1 December
Venue: Pushkin House
Address: 5A Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2TA
Tel: 020 7269 9770
Web: http://www.pushkinhouse.org/en/events
Price: £5
Time: 7.30pm

Salon Pushkin - Isfar Sarabsky
Date: Monday 7 December
Venue: Pushkin House
Address: 5A Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2TA
Tel: 020 7269 9770
Web: http://www.pushkinhouse.org/en/events

Oil & Jazz Concert - Sabina Racheva & Isfar Sarabsk
Date: Wednesday 9 December 2009
Venue: EBRD
Address: One Exchange Square, London, EC2A 2JN

Rena Effendi Book Launch
Date: Friday 11 December 2009
Venue: Frontline Club
Address: 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ
Tel: 020 7479 8950
Web: http://frontlineclub.com/events/upcoming.html
Price: £12.50

Rena Effendi Exhibition
Date: Thursday 17 December 2009 - Saturday 16 January 2010
Venue: HOST Gallery
Address: 1 Honduras Street, London EC1Y 0TH
Tel: 020 7253 2770
Web: http://www.hostgallery.co.uk
Price: Free
Time: Mon-Fri 10am-6pm Sat 11am-4pm

Azerbaijani Food Stall at Southbank Centre Square
Date: 19 - 22 December
Venue: Southbank Centre Square
Tel: 0844 875 0073
Price: Free

Mugham Music Night
Date: Tuesday 12 January
Venue: Host Gallery
Address: 1 Honduras Street, London, EC1Y 0TH
Tel: 020 7253 2770
Web: http://www.hostgallery.co.uk
Price: Free

Mugham Music Night
Date: Tuesday 9 February 2010
Venue: St-Martins-in-Fields
Address: Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ
Tel: 020 7766 1100
Web: http://www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/page/music/music.html

Unseen Salakhov
Date: Thursday 18 February - Thursday 25 February
Venue: Sotheby's
Address: 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA
Tel: 020 7293 5000
Price: Free
Time: 9am - 4.30pm Closed at Weekends

Ave Maria
Date: Thursday 25 February
Venue: St-Martin-in-the Fields
Address: Trafalgar Square, London,WC2N 4JJ
Tel: 020 7766 1100
Web: http://www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/page/music/music.html

Gidon Kremer performing Garayev
Date: Sunday 28 February 2010
Venue: Cadogan Hall
Address: 5 Sloane Terrace, London SW1X 9DQ
Tel: 020 7730 4500
Web: http://www.cadoganhall.com/montheventsresults.php?month=2

A celebration of Azerbaijani Music
Date: Sunday 7 March
Venue: Royal Festival Hall
Address: Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Tel: 0844 875 0073

BUTA Art Centre
Buta means 'bud'; it is the key decorative element in Azerbaijani Ornamental Art. Nasib Piriyev, the Director of this first London festival of Azerbaijani art, founded the Buta Art Centre in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, in 2005 as a not-for-profit organisation. Educated in Moscow, Oxford and London, Piriyev is an entrepreneur who began his career in media and creative industries before starting his own business. Most recently he helped to found Azmeco, the largest private company in Azerbaijan. BUTA now has offices in London, Moscow and Frankfurt and has steadily expanded its reach to support and promote the culture of Azerbaijan internationally. For the past five years BUTA has also successfully run Art November in Moscow, a festival of art and music which is about to celebrate its 16th year.

Piriyev's passion for the arts has driven BUTA's agenda and it is now recognised as the country's leading arts centre, promoting local musicians, poets and artists through festivals and concerts. Last year saw international recognition for the Centre's work as executive director Naida Khalilova was short-listed for the British Council-sponsored International Young Performing Arts Entrepreneur award.
www.buta.ru

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