Ali Doğan Gönültaş Quartet, 150 Years of Music From Kiğı, Turkey

Ali Doğan Gönültaş is a Kurdish musician born in Turkey. A graduate of Kocaeli University in both archaeology and communications, he started his professional music career by founding the band Ze Tijê; the group has since released two albums and has performed hundreds of concerts in Turkey. Ali's oral history and field research, which he began in 2007, has led to the 2022 album “Kiğı," and to this concert. Kiğı is a personal look at the 150-year musical process of the village of Kiğı, Ali's birthplace. It consists of works in the regional languages of Kurmancî, Kırdaskî, Armenian and Turkish, as well as Zazakî, Ali's mother tongue. Themes and styles such as govend (traditional Kurdish dance), laments, work songs, and prayer forms are conveyed with the modal characteristics of the region. For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-10849