Raushan Orazbaeva

Raushan Orazbaeva (Russian: Раушан Оразбаева) was born in 1973 into a musical family in Kzyltu, Southeast Kazakhstan. She was born into a clan related to a famous Sufi Sunak, who came to Kazakhstan from Egypt. Her mother's grandmother was a baksy. Raushan started to learn kyl-kobyz when she was nine, and in 1983 entered Akmet Zhubanov School in Almaty. From 1991 she studied at the Almaty Kurmangazy Conservatory, the main institution for the Kazakh traditional music, from which she graduated in 1996. Since then Raushan has taught kyl-kobyz, has performed regularly solo and as a soloist with various ensembles and orchestras, including the famous Kurmangazy Orchestra of Folk Instruments. Raushan challenged the boundaries of traditional kyl-kobyz repertoire, interpreting some of the dombra küys for kyl-kobyz. This caused certain turmoil among the purists of the tradition. it's still unusual for a woman to play kyl-kobyz, moreover to have expertise enough to challenge the established rules Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.