Chirgilchin - Legendary Throat Singers of Tuva

Santa Cruz welcomes legendary throat singers of Tuva, Chirgilchin, to the Rio Theatre!

Igor Koshkendey, Mongun-ool Ondar, Aidysmaa Koshkendey, Aidyn Byrtaan-ool

“It is a known fact that some of the best throat singers in the world hail from Tuva and a few of them are members of Chirgilchin. Take Igor Koshkendey. He has twice won the Tuvan International Throat Singing competition, winning in all of the six styles of throat singing.” –Pittsburgh PostGazette

“Chirgilchin is renowned for their mesmerizing vocal and instrumental performances, which are almost beyond description. Both atmospheric and rollicking at the same time, it is the indescribable multi-phonic vocal style of Khoomei that takes center stage in a Chirgilchin performance.” –Redwood Times

“Hearing a throat singing concert is an astonishing experience that leads to a primitive dimension, where the self is drowned to become reunited with the fundamental nature around it.” - Pepperdine Graphic

“The voices of three men turn into six distinct voices as each singer simultaneously produces two notes. Their voices are accompanied by the playing of small hand-crafted pine instruments that resemble cellos and banjos.” - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The word Chirgilchin has two translations: "dance of the air in the heat of the day" and "miracle". Established in 1996, Chirgilchin is a group of musicians from Tuva, a small Russian province north of Western Mongolia. Their music tells stories of their homeland, its horses and its people. The monotone sustained notes that branch out into overtone singing with slight shifts in pitch give Tuvan music its characteristic bouyant yet meditative drone quality. The songs are sung in minor pentatonic scale, similar to American blues.

Throat-singing is an extraordinary vocal form in which one singer produces two or more voices simultaneously, the low sounds in the throat harmonizing with middle and high flute-like overtones, to create richly layered melodies that evoke Central Asian steppes and nomadic life. Atmospheric and mesmeric, this music is almost too difficult to describe in words and must be heard to be believed. The most advanced forms of throat-singing come from Tuva, and the members of Chirgilchin are among the best and most accomplished throat-singers in all of Tuva.

Learn more at pnmartists.com/chirgilchin