Alash Ensemble

Alash Ensemble

Alash Ensemble is a Tuvan group from Kyzyl that has been active since 1999. Its members are Nachyn Choodu, Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, Ayan-ool Sam and Ayan Shirizhik. The group performs central Asian throat singing and folk music, and it uses traditional Tuvan instruments alongside some Western ones.

Background and formation

The members are trained in traditional Tuvan music from childhood. Bady-Dorzhu Ondar and Ayan-ool Sam study with the master throat singer Kongar-ool Ondar at the Republic School for the Arts in Kyzyl. When the musicians are students at Kyzyl Arts College in 1999, they form a group called Changy-Xaya, which becomes the school’s resident traditional ensemble. Alash develops out of this work and takes its name from the Alash River in Tuva. Kongar-ool Ondar serves as artistic director and plays an important part in the ensemble’s development.

Music and instruments

Alongside learning traditional performance, the members study harmony, theory, staff notation and Western classical music. Their approach combines older Tuvan instruments, including the murgu, shoor and limpi, with instruments such as guitar and accordion. This mix of sounds becomes part of the ensemble’s style.

Recognition and collaborations

In 2004, Alash wins first prize at the International Xoomei throat singing symposium competition. In 2005, Bady-Dorzhu Ondar is named best male singer at the Ustuu-Khuree festival. In 2007, he is named People’s Xöömeizhi of the Republic of Tuva, becoming the youngest person to receive the award. At the 2008 International Xöömei Symposium, three members win the top individual throat singing prizes, while the fourth takes the leading prize for a duet with his wife.

The ensemble tours the United States in 2006 at the invitation of the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, and returns for performances and workshops in 2007 and 2008. It also collaborates with Sun Ra Arkestra, Béla Fleck and Flecktones, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Student Producers Program. Alash appears as guest artists on Béla Fleck and Flecktones’ holiday album Jingle All the Way. Sean Quirk, originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, serves as the group’s manager, producer and interpreter, and he and the other members are also part of the Tuvan National Orchestra.