From Zayton to New York, Vol. XI presents the living musical traditions of the Kalmyk people — descendants of the Western Mongol Oirats whose migrations since the fifteenth century have shaped a cultural landscape spanning Russia, Mongolia, China, and Central Asia. Today, with the Kalmyk language classified as endangered by UNESCO, the preservation of musical heritage carries particular urgency.

This concert centers on two pillars of Kalmyk sonic identity. The dombra, a two-stringed plucked lute with a triangular body and resonant soundboard, has historically accompanied epic storytelling, ritual, and communal gatherings — carried by jangarchi, the singers of the heroic Jangar cycle. Throat singing, a technique in which a single vocalist produces multiple simultaneous pitches, connects the Kalmyk tradition to a broader sonic world shared across Mongol and Central Asian cultures. Alongside these, the program features vocal traditions spanning ut dun ("long songs"), children's folk songs, festival songs for the Kalmyk New Year, wedding ballads with ritual dance, and pastoral invocations of the steppe.

What makes this concert distinctive is its cast: performers ages 6 to over 70, drawn from Russia, Inner Mongolia, and the United States, including a laureate of the Republic of Kalmykia, a former soloist of the State Symphony Orchestra of Kalmykia, and young students learning dombra and voice in the New York area. Together they demonstrate how Kalmyk music functions as a living medium of lineage, memory, and cultural continuity — not preserved under glass, but actively transmitted across generations and geographies.

Performed by artists of the Kalmyk Heritage Center. Co-presented by See See Records and the Center for Traditional Music and Dance (CTMD) .

Kalmyk performances: Vocal studio “SongRise”, instrumental studio “Dombra Bair”, dance studio “Phoenix“.

Zul is an important Kalmyk holiday, celebrating both the new year according to their lunar calendar and the Parinirvana of the founder of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, Lama Tsongkapa. Celebrated on the 25th day of the tenth lunar month, it involves cleaning and a special meal of biscuits (bortsoki) and tea, but meat is often abstained from. A key ritual is lighting candles with wicks representing the ages of family members to mark a communal new year.