Alash

The award-winning Tuvan throat-singing group “Alash” returns to SMU as part of their 2009 tour of the U.S. and Canada. Throat-singing is a centuries-old Central Asian musical tradition, developed originally by the nomadic peoples of Central Asia to communicate and entertain each other over long distances. It remained a well-kept secret for centuries, only recently gaining international recognition, thanks in part to the Academy Award-nominated 1999 documentary Genghis Blues. In throat singing, a single vocalist produces two, three, or even four distinct pitches simultaneously, somewhat like a human bagpipe. Throat singers use their voices to create the sounds of the natural world – whistling birds, bubbling streams, howling wolves, blowing wind – and often accompany their performances with traditional Tuvan instruments, such as the igli (a two-stringed fiddle) or the xomus (a mouth harp). Tuva, now officially the Russian Republic of Tyva, is located in eastern Siberia, bordering on Mongolia.