Oleg Fezov, or Oleg Fesov ( tg, Олег Фезов) is a

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wri ...

, and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

from

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

, who composes and arranges his songs in addition to performing. In 1990 he graduated from Dushanbe College of Arts where he majored in sculpture. Later he decided to switch fields and soon enough he was one of the best illustrating artists of children's periodic and used to be the art director of "Mash Ap" children's magazine. But his natural talent for music soon overpowered his love for graphic art. He used to play violin as a kid and since then he always had passion for music. This allowed him to simultaneously develop a musical career. He first started to compose and arrange music and later performing his own songs and music. He now lives in Germany. Despite living as an immigrant, Fesov still feels strongly connected to his home country and his ancestors from the

Pamir Mountains The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...

. His people are

Badakhshan Badakhshan is a historical region comprising parts of modern-day north-eastern Afghanistan, eastern Tajikistan, and Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County in China. Badakhshan Province is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Much of historic Ba ...

i, or Pamiri, an ethnic group of some 350,000 people who are divided by the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

border. Fesov had to leave his home country because of the

Civil War of Tajikistan The Tajikistani Civil War ( tg, Ҷанги шаҳрвандии Тоҷикистон, translit=Jangi shahrvandiyi Tojikiston / Çangi shahrvandiji Toçikiston; russian: Гражданская война в Таджикистане), also known ...

that raged on during the 1990s. After taking his wife actress Lola Tayngushoeva and their two kids away from the raging war, Oleg returned to Dushanbe, lived on his mother's pension and played with band on weddings. Soon after a wave of murders occurred in Dushanbe forcing Oleg to return to Moscow. The album Lalaiki Pamir presents the musical traditions and ideas of

(Tajikistan) and the

. The traditional oriental string and percussion instruments such as sitar, rubab, ud, dombra, various drums and tablas, play an important role in the music of Oleg Fesov combined with his intensive and emotion-loaded voice. All lyrics are in Tajik or Pamirian language Rushani and shughni languages. Oleg Fesov was discovered at the huge "

Voice of Asia Voice of Asia (, ''Azııa Daýysy''; , ''Golos Azii'') is a music festival held annually in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Acts from all over Asia and other areas take part. The usual venue for the festival is the outdoor Medeo speed skating rink, situate ...

" festival in

Alma Ata Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of t ...

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

where he and his band Darvish received a special prize and Nargis Bandishoeva who performed one of his songs won the contest. His international exposure came when

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

label Blue Flame released a series of recordings with the top performers that participated in that festival. American audiences found out about Oleg Fesov in 1995, when one of his songs, Marav, was included in the three-CD world fusion boxed set titled Planet Soup (Ellipsis Arts CD 3450), released by

Ellipsis Arts The ellipsis (, also known informally as dot dot dot) is a series of dots that indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. The plural is ellipses. The term origin ...

and produced by Angel Romero.

External links

About Oleg Fezov on www.zvuki.ru

An Interview with Oleg in Russian
Pamiri people 20th-century Tajikistani male singers 21st-century Tajikistani male singers Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Asia-musician-stub