An Evening of Azerbaijani Culture is held in the German city of Dusseldorf with the organizational support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation

An Evening of Azerbaijani Culture was held in the German city of Dusseldorf with the organizational support of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Embassy of Azerbaijan in this country, November 4. Some 800 guests gathered in Dusseldorf  Theatre House  listened to live Azerbaijani jazz music.

Opening the event, Ambassador Parviz Shahbazov noted that this concert was one of the series of events held following the initiative of Azerbaijan’s First Lady, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva. Then the Ambassador informed of our country’s rich music culture and development of various music genres, and mentioned that Garabagh - the music cradle of Azerbaijan - was occupied by Armenia.

Conveying Azerbaijan’s general development by concrete facts, the diplomat emphasized that our country, by its geographical location, has played a role of a bridge between the West and East, linking at the same time the Western and Eastern cultures.

The host of the event provided information about the historical ties between Azerbaijan and Germany, the German heritage existing in Azerbaijan, as well as projects implemented by Mehriban Aliyeva and headed by her Heydar Aliyev Foundation in the republic and abroad towards preserving cultural heritage, promotion of cultural relations and improving conditions for the youth’s receiving better education. Noting that jazz music in Azerbaijan started to develop back in the 30s of the last century, the host underscored that Azerbaijan has a number of strong world-class jazzmen, the Baku Jazz Festival was one of the leading music festivals in this genre, and that synthesis of jazz with mugham was unique.

The grandiose music programme performed by Azerbaijani jazzman Elchin Shirinov and jazzmen from the Great Britain Dave Hamblet and Sam Laserson was welcomed by the audience with applauses. The synthesis of our popular songs - Shirzad Fataliyev performing in balaban and Mirjavad Gafarov in oud – together with these jazzmen’s performance made the concert more colourful.

Participants of the event were distributed a new publication of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation – the book “German Traces in Azerbaijan” written by Eva-Maria Auch, a professor, the head of the department “History of Azerbaijan” at the Humboldt University in Berlin. At the same time, the  photo-exhibition “German Traces in Azerbaijan” and an exposition consisting of works by winners of an art competition called “Germany Through An Artist’s Eyes”   were demonstrated.

The event was attended by deputies of the North Rhine-Westphalia Federal Land, representatives of Germany’s public and political and cultural circles, the diplomatic corps accredited in this country and mass media.