About
Called "a jewel of the United States' Crimean community," The New York Crimean Tatar Ensemble is the only U.S.-based group performing the exquisite traditional music of their heritage.
Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of Crimea, now an autonomous republic in Ukraine. Their vibrant music and dance traditions have substantial similarities with other cultures around the Black Sea, but with a special flair that captivates the ear and the eye: uniquely accented 7/8 dance rhythms and polyrhythmic songs, deft interweaving of Eastern and Western modes, and precise, athletic dance steps that bring energy to any performance.
The Crimean Tatar community was forcibly uprooted from Ukraine by the Russians in 1944, driven into exile in cattle cars. Many perished. Most members of this ensemble were born to exile families in Uzbekistan, only returning to Crimea in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Three members of the group, ensemble director Nariman Asanov (violin), keyboard player Eldar Ibraimov, and clarinetist Aziz Veliev, met in 1990 while attending Tchaikovsky Music College in Simferopol, Crimea. When they came to the United States in 1994, they were part of a second wave of Crimean Tatars to settle in Brooklyn, joining earlier arrivals, mostly from Turkey, who had established the Crimean Cultural Center of the United States in the 1970s.
This ensemble was formed in the mid-2000s with the addition of trumpeter Rustem Faizov and Lennur Mamutov on hand drum. Together they serve as ambassadors for their culture, having performed to great acclaim at venues like Lincoln Center and the United Nations; in 2014 they co-created a multimedia performance exploring the history and current political situation in Crimea with faculty at Wesleyan University. Perhaps most importantly, they continue to play for Crimean Tatar weddings and celebrations, and take an indispensible role supporting the Cultural Center's dance school, which is passing on these traditions to the next generation.
The ensemble will be joined by dancers Seyran Adilov, Dinara Faizova, Yunus Faizov, Uriane Faizova, and Ayshe Kubedinova.