NEWS

Held in Baku since 2007, the Mstislav Rostropovich Festival traditionally gathers the outstanding performers from different countries around it. The events are arranged by organizational efforts of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan.

On the sidelines of the Rostropovich International Music Festival, four events were held. Along with popular cultural figures of Azerbaijan, representatives of Russia, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium and other countries attend the festivals.

Mstislav Rostropovich is recognized as the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of all time.

He was born in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan on 27 March 1927.

Karabakh cuisine is an integral part of traditional Azerbaijani national culinary culture. It has learned a lot from other regions, influencing them at the same time. The culinary traditions, terminology, folklore, dishes, utensils, cooking technology, festive rituals and ceremonial meals of Karabakh are all identical with the cuisines of other regions of Azerbaijan. At the same time, there are obvious local differences due to climatic, geographical and traditional conditions. Karabakh is far from the sea, so Karabakh cuisine does not use sea fish. Fish dishes are borrowed. Karabakh cuisine used only freshwater fish, mostly in boiled and fried forms. Karabakh people themselves consider fish dishes "self-indulgence" and not very serious food.

In some areas of Karabakh, near lakes and rivers, there are complex fish dishes, but there are very few of them. These include dishes from freshwater fish, "lavangi", "gurgut" and "fish buglama" (stewed fish). In contrast to other regions, lentil and rice are added to the Karabakh "lavangi" (stuffed fish). In addition to these products, the stuffing includes tomatoes, peppers, celery, green onions and sour cherry plum lavashana. In contrast to other regions, the Karabakh lavangi is steamed.

For the "gurgut", the fish is stuffed with minced akhta zogal (dried pitted Cornelian cherry), and fine-cut onions, lavashana, hot and sweet peppers are added. The stuffed fish is salted, a little water and butter is added, and then it is cooked on low heat for 30-40 minutes. The fish buglama (stewed) is cooked in different ways. The fish is stewed with different fruits and vegetables. These fish dishes in various forms are made throughout Azerbaijan.

The fact that fish from the Kura River, which flows near Barda, was brought to Karabakh, particularly to Barda, was recorded by the 10th century Arab travelers, al-Muqaddasi (10th century) and al-Istahri (10th century). They mentioned fishes like "kasbuvin", "tirrikh", "surmakhi", "zarogan" and "ishubat".

Sheep-herding has been developed in Karabakh for centuries. Local agriculture was diversified, settled and cultured. A great place was occupied by grain-growing, melon and gourd growing and gardening. Karabakh cuisine uses nearly all types of traditional Azerbaijani open and closed hearths: tandir (oven made of clay in a hole in the earth), chala (pit), ojag (bonfire), saj (iron disk for baking bread), chargrill, bukhari (fire-place) and kura (furnace), which, taking into account local features, make it possible to highlight certain nuances in local cuisine.

Islam had an enormous impact on Karabakh cuisine. In particular, it does not use pork, and pigs have never been bred and sold at local markets in Karabakh.

A delegation led by Minister of Culture Anar Karimov will pay an official visit to Turkiye, Report informs.

"The visit will include a meeting of the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURSKOY) to be held in Bursa, Turkiye, on March 30-31, as well as a number of official conferences," the ministry said.

Azerbaijan's Eurovision 2022 entry will perform at the contest with the song "Fade To Black".

The country will be represented at the song contest 2022 by Nadir Rustamli, the Voice of Azerbaijan singing competition's winner.

"Fade To Black" was released on March 21 2022, with the official music video being released on the Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.

The song is written and composed by Thomas Stengaard and Andreas Stone Johansson. Thomas Stengaard songs are well known to Eurovision viewers,Eurovoix reported. 

The songwriter was a part of the teams that produced the Eurovision entries “El Diablo” and “Adrenalina” for Cyprus and San Marino respectively last year.

Swedish songwriter Andreas Stone Johansson is best known for working on 2019 Eurovision entire “Too Late for Love” which was performed and co-written by John Lundvik.

Nadir has been into music since a young age. He took piano lessons for seven years, studied in music school and, while at university and joined a music band "Sunrise" as the front man. In the music band, he also served as the art director for the music band getting to indulge his creative side even further.

Eurovision 2022 will take place in Turin, Italy on May 10-14.

Nadir Rustamli will perform in the first part of the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022.

As a result of the draw, Azerbaijan's entry will perform on May 12. The first semi-final will take place on May 10.

The Azerbaijani delegation at Eurovision 2022 will be headed by composer and producer Isa Melikov.

Medieval Azerbaijan cities were divided into quarters called mahalla with the central quarter square, where a cathedral mosque with madrasa, a bath and sometimes a bazaar were situated. Right-angled Shusha quarter mosques were notable for their simplicity and resembled more a dwelling house, rather than a religious construction. The only difference from houses consisted in small hip boxes for muezzins called guldasta installed on roofs of mosques and decorated with half-moons. The interior of the mosques, on the contrary, was decorated completely in accordance with the highest requirements of Muslim traditions. In all the quarter mosques, just like in big cathedral mosques, opposite to mihrab in the second circle there were galleries for praying women. The room was decorated with stucco moulding onaments, various Quran inscriptions and sometimes with polychromatic paintings.

There were two types of facades of the quarter mosques of Old Shusha. The first type consisted in an eyvan with arches of various designs (mosques of Merdinli, Guyulug, Haji Mirjanli, Kecharli) and the second type resembled a flat wall with modest asymmetric entrance. These mosques also differed with overhead covers. The mosques of Chukhur, Julfalar, Guyuluq, Haji Yusifli had flat wooden ceilings, and the mosques of Chel Qala Taza, Saatli, Mamayi had halls with three naves that were made with the usage of arches supported by octahedral columns. Both types of mosques had separate entrances for women. The majority of quarter mosques were constructed by Kerbelayi Safi Khan Garabaghli.

A prominent Azerbaijani singer with a wonderful voice, Seyid Shushinski was born in 1889 in the village of Horadiz in Karabakh. His interest in the folk music and mugham was revealed from his childhood. He got his first musical education in Navvab’s musical school in Shusha. Soon Seyid became popular and beloved among the people, as any mugham and song in his performance gave the listeners a great artistic pleasure.

Seyid Shushinski had an excellent musical memory and great artistic performance talent. He brought many new elements, shapes to mughams and has done an invaluable work towards enrichment of the art of mugham.

Great Azerbaijani composer Fikrat Amirov said: “If Jabbar Garyaghdy was the brain of the Azerbaijani music, then Seyid Shushinski was the beating heart of this music”. People called Seyid the singer of beauty, heart and spiritual freedom.

Seyid Shushinski served his people with honor all his life and rightly deserved the title of the national singer of Azerbaijan.

Despite a violent moment at the 2022 Academy Awards where Best Actor winner Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock in the face, it was a historical night at the Oscars on Sunday, according to Anadolu Agency.

Ariana DeBose became the first Afro-Latina and first openly queer woman of color to win an Oscar, picking up the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Anita in the Steven Spielberg remake of West Side Story.

“Yikes! What is this?” said DeBose. “Now you see why Anita wants to be in America because even in this weary world we live in, dreams come true.”

DeBose’s win comes exactly 60 years after Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her same role in the original West Side Story.

“Your Anita paved the way for tons of Anitas like me,” DeBose said, paying tribute to Moreno, who won her Oscar in 1962.

In another first, Troy Kotsur became the first deaf male actor to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in CODA (Child Of Deaf Adult), a film about a teenage girl who is the only hearing member of her family learning to connect with her deaf parents and brother through singing.

“This is dedicated to the deaf community, the CODA community, and the disabled community. This is our moment,” said Kotsur. “I really want to thank all of the wonderful deaf theater stages where I was allowed and given the opportunity to develop my craft as an actor.”

Marlee Matlin, Kotsur’s wife in the film, became the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award in 1987. Matlin won the Best Actress Oscar for the film Children of a Lesser God.

CODA also took home the top prize of the night, winning Best Picture Oscar over a crowded nomination field of 10 films.

In addition, Sian Heder, who wrote and directed CODA, picked up an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film.

“I want to thank all of my collaborators in the deaf community, in the CODA community, for being my teachers,” she said.

Jessica Chastain won her first Oscar for Best Actress, playing the role of glitzy televangelist Tammy Faye Messner in the biopic The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

She used her acceptance speech to point out challenges being faced by the LGBT community in the US “who oftentimes feel out of place with their peers.”

“We’re faced with discriminatory and bigoted legislation that is sweeping our country with the only goal of further dividing us,” said Chastain, “and in times like this, I think of Tammy, and I’m inspired by her radical acts of love.”

Smith took home the Oscar for Best Actor after slapping Rock across the face during an altercation earlier in the awards ceremony. He cryptically addressed the situation, referring to the character he played in the movie King Richard.

“Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family,” said Smith. “Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father…just like they said about Richard Williams.”

Kish is one of the oldest villages in present-day Azerbaijan, and is well-known for a church here, during the period of Caucasian Albania. The current building of the temple of Saint Elisha was built in the 10th-12th centuries. According to some scholars’ opinions, the church in Kish stands on the same place where St. Elisha founded his own church. That is why the temple in Kish is often referred to as one of the oldest spiritual centers in the Caucasus, since St. Elisha was the first patriarch of the Church of Caucasian Albania and an early Christian leader in the Caucasus.

The church in Kish is beautiful with its own spare style. The current building dates to about the 12th century, while remains found on the side date back millennia. The masonry building is finely tiled. It has exquisite marquee dome and narrow windows. The inner architecture is typical of a rather small temple and the inner yard holds an ancient cemetery (not more than 50 people). Above one grave, restorers placed a transparent plastic dome that allows visitors to see the skeleton of an unusually tall man (about 2 meters).

The temple of St. Elisha in Kish is one of the most frequently visited monuments dating back to the Caucasian Albanian era.

The Baku Brazilian Film Festival will be held at the Nizami Cinema Center in Baku on March 30-April 3,Report informs referring to the Brazilian Embassy in Azerbaijan.

Four feature films and one documentary will be shown within the festival organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Embassy of Brazil in Baku.

All films will be in Portuguese, subtitled in the Azerbaijani language.

Azerbaijani artists have celebrated the arrival of spring season and all the beauty that it brings in its wake.

Colorful paintings inspired by the spring season have been showcased at the Art Tower Gallery.

The exhibition timed to Novruz holiday featured art works inspired by Novruz holiday created by artists during the workshop.

Vibrant paintings by Nigar Narimanbayova, Eldar Babazade, Roya Hasanova, Nigar Familsa, Kamilla Muradova, Nigar Niyazova, Ainur Mustafayeva, Roza Muradova, Leyla Orujeva, Ayten Abdullayeva and other artists delighted the art lovers at first glance.

Co-organized by the Icharishahar State Historical-Architectural Reserve and Arts Council Azerbaijan, the exhibition was curated by Sabina Najafova.

Speaking about the exhibition the head of the Arts Council Azerbaijan Dadash Mammadov said that the exposition includes works created by the artists during the workshop

"A friendly atmosphere always reigns at our workshops, artists talk, discuss new trends in art. By the way, many art lovers visited the gallery to watch workshop and enjoy the works of renown artists...," Mammadov said.

World-famous artist Nigar Narimanbayova expressed her gratitude to the head of the Arts Council Azerbaijan Dadash Mammadov for intimation to take part in the workshop. 

"Now I am creating a series of female portraits - phantasmagoric, magical, magical images. I always say that a woman is the crown of nature, she is mysterious and magical. One of these beautiful female images is reflected in my painting entitled "The Lady in Blue". This fabulous beauty makes it possible to see the world  through the blue color. I love blue very much, now I have a whole series of paintings in these colors. Blue is the color of the night, mystery, dreams, the starry sky, the universe. The Lady in Blue is depicted against the backdrop of the universe. An owl sits on her shoulder - a bird symbolizing the wisdom of female nature. There are angels playing trumpets next to her. She stretches out her hands to everything beautiful, kind and bright ... ", said Narimanbayova. 

National artist Leyla Orujeva noted a unique atmosphere in the Art Tower Gallery. 

"Talented and interesting artists gather at the Art Tower Gallery. Here we discuss and work on a chosen topic. This process helps to reveal the artist's inner potential. Suddenly you want to express something on canvas that you did not expect. Last time it was associated with temptation and inspiration. What inspires me? For several days I thought about it. There are so many things around and I realized that it is my dreams that tempt and inspire me to move forward," said Orujeva.

The artist stressed that her daughter Aliyah also inspires her to create masterpieces. Her painting depicts a girl who releases tits from a cage and follows a crane, soaring at dawn over beloved the city of Baku.