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Daughters of Tuva -- Sat. March 3, 6:30 pm

www.tyvakyzy.com

In 2003, the first throat singers came to Bozeman for a sold out performance sponsored by Bozeman Folklore Society. In 2006, Huunhuurtu, the "Beatles" of Tuvan Throat singing played to a wildly appreciative audience at the Emerson Cultural Center. Now Hager Auditorium at the Museum of the Rockies will host "Daughters of Tuva" the only all women throat singing group from Tuva. Get your tickets early, there are only 220 seats and the acoustics are great!

Review from San Franciso Classical Voice:

Tyva Kyzy's Adventures in Sound

One by one, four young, tiny women took their turn Thursday night in the SF Asian Art Museum's jam-packed Samsung Hall. One by one — clad in ancient and exotic outfits of leather and silk — each sang soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, a bit of didgeridoo . . . and then all at the same time. It was throat singing at its stupefying best, voices like light seen through a prism, like water squirting from a constricted hose. Indeed, the mechanism of throat singing is similar to putting a finger at the end of the hose — the trick is tightening the throat.

One of the singers, Sholbana Denzin, is both a musician and an economist, so I asked her after the show how she would estimate the degree of frugality to be achieved by using one Tuvan instead of five opera singers in the world's financially stressed companies.

Daughters of Tuva
She sidestepped the issue (fraught with danger of union politics) by asking if Americans know the proportion of Tuvan men practicing throat-singing. This American guessed one in 10, but Devan Miller, producer of the tour, had the right answer: one in four. Counting only ethnic Tuvans — and not the large number of Russians left over from the bad old days — that translates to about 50,000.

And right there, you have one of two essential facts about Tyva Kyzy, "Daughters of Tuva" — they are not men, but rather five (with instrumentalist Ayana Mongush) of Tuva's 50 women throat singers, and only female professional group.

The other important — and statistically improbable — thing to know about Tyva Kyzy is that they are the best. When you listen to European throat singers, Mongolians or Tuvan men, after the initial amazement of hearing numerous overtones and two simultaneous pitches, interest tends to lag. These rare women throat singers go far beyond novelty and shock value. They are outstanding musicians.

Choduraa Tumat, the group's leader and star, hits the high-C equivalent sygyt — a powerful, whistle-like overtone — while maintaining kargyraa, the low, rumbling, four-note fundamental, shifting seamlessly into khöömei, the multiple-note, multiple-tone sound... and does so with elegance and melodic beauty.

There are some Mongolian throat singers performing with as much lyricism and humor as Tyva Kyzy, but I haven't heard any better. (Tuvans are often confused with Mongolians, but in fact, they are Turkic, ethnically different, and even a small Tuvan enclave — the tsengel Tuvans — within Mongolia exists in strict separation.) Throat singing or "just singing," the Daughters of Tuva are special every way.

Additional Information and Reviews:

http://www.earball.net/spintheglobe/playlists2005/playlist_10_11_2005.htm