Behzod Abduraimov: a childhood dream hits the world's stage
From learning basic scales with his mother in Tashkent to refining his artistry under world‑renowned mentors in the United States, Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov has built a career on some of the world's most celebrated stages.
In this episode of Changemakers of Uzbekistan , he recalls how his first teacher, Tamara Popovich, laid his technical foundation, and how later studies with compatriot Stanislav Ioudenitch shaped his understanding of styles and composers.
Abduraimov describes the responsibility performers carry as a bridge between composer and audience, spending countless hours interpreting scores to awaken emotions in listeners.
He shares the challenges of constant travel and the thrill of achieving childhood dreams, performing at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and beyond - proving that music transcends borders, politics, and time, while proudly carrying his Uzbek heritage worldwide.
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Euronews
05-08-2025
- Euronews
Behzod Abduraimov: a childhood dream hits the world's stage
ADVERTISEMENT From learning basic scales with his mother in Tashkent to refining his artistry under world‑renowned mentors in the United States, Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov has built a career on some of the world's most celebrated stages. In this episode of Changemakers of Uzbekistan , he recalls how his first teacher, Tamara Popovich, laid his technical foundation, and how later studies with compatriot Stanislav Ioudenitch shaped his understanding of styles and composers. Abduraimov describes the responsibility performers carry as a bridge between composer and audience, spending countless hours interpreting scores to awaken emotions in listeners. He shares the challenges of constant travel and the thrill of achieving childhood dreams, performing at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and beyond - proving that music transcends borders, politics, and time, while proudly carrying his Uzbek heritage worldwide.
Euronews
27-07-2025
- Euronews
Bukhara Biennial: A ten-week exploration of food, art, craft and music
From 5 September to 20 November 2025, this UNESCO Creative City will host the inaugural Bukhara Biennial, a ten-week journey of contemporary art, communal rituals, and culinary storytelling. Titled 'Recipes for Broken Hearts', the Biennial transforms a city of legends into a living stage where grief, memory and joy are reimagined through food, music, poetry and craft. Curated by international art figure Diana Campbell and commissioned by Gayane Umerova, Chairperson of the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), the Biennial features over 70 commissions created in Uzbekistan, activating centuries-old madrasas and caravanserais in ways Bukhara has never seen. 'Bukhara has shaped the world before: through knowledge, craft, and exchange,' says Umerova. 'This Biennial is a way of giving it the tools to do so again, through creativity and dialogue'. Not just an exhibition. A sensory ritual. Rather than opening with a red carpet or gallery wall, the Biennial begins with the aroma of fermentation. At Cafe Oshqozon, Buddhist monk and chef Jeong Kwan will prepare kimchi on the first day — only to unearth it again ten weeks later for a final meal, ripened by time and silence. It is a metaphor for the event itself. 'Recipes for Broken Hearts' explores how time, tradition, and care can heal. Every element – from food to sculpture, textiles to sound is part of a broader experiment in emotional repair. Diana Campbell, known for her work at the Dhaka Art Summit, calls it a 'multi-sensory feast rooted in Bukhara's spirit of hospitality and intellectual depth'. She adds, 'You don't just look at the art. You smell it, taste it, feel it in your hands and bones'. From salt and sugar to clay and code The artworks span disciplines and geographies. Egyptian-born food artist Laila Gohar conjures memories through Navat, a traditional sugar crystal made from saffron and grape juice. Colombian artist Delcy Morelos constructs a dome from earth, sand, and spices. Uzbek artist Oyjon Khayrullaeva, working with ceramicist Abdurauf Taxirov, builds mosaic organs - a stomach over the cafe entrance, lungs and hearts tucked across the city connecting venues as parts of one collective body. And then there's Subodh Gupta, who repurposes enamel dishes from traditional kitchens into a towering dome, inside which guests dine on dishes connecting India and Uzbekistan. 'It's about collapsing distance — between countries, between disciplines, between people,' he says. All works are made in Uzbekistan, many in collaboration with local artisans. 'This was non-negotiable,' says Umerova. 'We didn't want an art fair. We wanted something that speaks from here, even when it reaches the world'. At the centre of the Biennial is the House of Softness, a transformation of the 16th century Gavkushon Madrasa into a space for public programmes, children's workshops, and storytelling. Artist and architect Suchi Reddy has designed a protective canopy inspired by Uzbek ikat casting patterns of healing across the courtyard. Here, a three-day symposium titled 'The Craft of Mending' will bring together thinkers, historians and artists to explore repair as both a physical and political act. 'Erasure is a form of heartbreak,' says Aziza Izamova, an Uzbek scholar at Harvard leading the event. 'And so, to repair to remember - is an act of resistance'. Young curators from across Asia will also gather in Bukhara for a workshop on how to commission work that does not yet exist. It is a fitting lesson for a city reshaping its own future. Music, too, flows through the Biennial's veins. Each full moon will be marked by a ceremonial karnay ritual – the long Uzbek horn used in weddings to symbolically summon water to the desert. These performances, led by Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser, fuse local tradition with global environmental consciousness. Elsewhere, the Bukhara Philharmonic will collaborate with artists like Tarek Atoui, bringing together Arab and Central Asian musical traditions. Weekly street processions and spontaneous performances will animate the city with rhythm and memory. Food is not a side programme, it is the soul of the Biennial. From fermented rituals to nomadic grains, the meals are designed to explore loss, resilience and belonging. Uzbek chefs like Bahriddin Chustiy and Pavel Georganov will share dishes infused with memory, while guest chefs like Fatmata Binta from Sierra Leone and Zuri Camille de Souza from India will link Uzbek traditions to West African and Goan culinary heritage. The final week hosts the Rice Cultures Festival, featuring plov, paella, pulao and jollof rice cooked in the open air, surrounded by stories and songs. 'It's not about haute cuisine,' says Umerova. 'It's about how we gather, how we heal, how we remember - through food'. Why Bukhara? 'Bukhara is not a backdrop,' says Umerova. 'It is the protagonist'. For over two millennia, the city has been a center of spiritual, scientific and artistic exchange. Yet in the modern art world, it has remained peripheral, until now. The Biennial is part of a broader national strategy to reintegrate Uzbekistan into global cultural networks. With support from President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the ACDF has launched restoration projects, museums, and creative platforms across the country and internationally including the Venice Biennale pavilion and the Expo 2025 in Osaka. 'This is not soft power,' Umerova insists. 'It's structural power. Culture creates jobs. It shapes futures. It builds identity that isn't reactive or nostalgic — but alive, generous, and forward-looking'. Bukhara is accessible by high-speed rail from Tashkent and Samarkand, with boutique hotels and guesthouses nestled among its UNESCO-listed architecture. The Biennial is entirely free and open to the public. Foreign visitors can expect immersive programming in Uzbek, Russian, and English, and a culinary scene where history is served with every dish. More information is available at and on Instagram at @
Euronews
18-06-2025
- Euronews
Renowned pianist and writer Alfred Brendel dies aged 94
Alfred Brendel, a classical pianist and writer renowned for his refined playing of Beethoven and Schubert, died Tuesday at his home in London. He was 94. Born on 5 January 1931 in Moravia, now the Czech Republic, Brendel spent most of his childhood in Croatia and Austria. 'I grew up in a family that was not musically inclined, not artistically inclined and not intellectual, so I had to find out a lot of things for myself', he said in a 2012 interview for the Verbier Festival. As a child and teenager, he studied piano and composition but considered himself largely self-taught. 'I did attend master classes in Austria by Edwin Fischer and Eduard Steuermann, but I never had a regular teacher after the age of 16', he told the New York Times in 1981. 'Self-discovery is a slower process but a more natural one.' Brendel gave his first recital in Graz, Austria, in 1948 at age 17, marking the beginning of a six-decade career. Throughout his life, he became especially associated with the music of Beethoven. He recorded the composer's 32 piano sonatas three times, and he played them over a month at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1983. He repeated the sonatas again at Carnegie over three seasons in the 1990s. 'Working on Beethoven takes a lifetime; the more you study him, the more you play him, the more you discover other avenues to explore and try', he told Le Monde in 1999. He was also praised for his interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, Liszt and Haydn. He was widely regarded as a mentor and as the 'musicians' musician' by his colleagues. Brendel had lived in London since 1971. He received 10 Grammy nominations and 23 honorary degrees from universities including, Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and The Juilliard School. Brendel gave his final concert with the Vienna Philharmonic in December 2008. An amateur painter and poet in his early years, he devoted most of his retirement to writing and published several books, including a 2004 collection of poems called 'Cursing Bagels.' 'I used to live a double life', he said in a 2012 interview with the Verbier Festival. 'I'm also a literary person lecturing, giving readings of my poems and teaching.' Content warning: This article contains images which some readers may find offensive. If you're a music lover and enjoy a bit of drama, you must have heard that controversy is brewing over the artwork of Sabrina Carpenter's upcoming album 'Man's Best Friend'. The suggestive – but hardly sexually explicit - cover features the buzzy 'Espresso' hitmaker on her knees in front of a faceless man who is pulling her hair back. And the release of the image has caused much debate. Many argue that Carpenter's MO has always been pop-horniness, and that she has every right to express herself and her sexuality – in this case what some may perceive as a submissive kink - in any way she sees fit and crucially, without being policed or harassed; others see this image as degrading, regressive and promoting traditional gender roles. At the end of the day, it's her album cover and can't we just let her be? Some hyper-conservative and hyper-progressive corners of the internet clearly disagree, and the reactions have been intense – which is hardly surprising, considering sexuality has always rubbed some people up the wrong way. Plus, scandal is hardly new for musicians, as artists have sparked outrage with their album covers for decades, leading some to be censored or even banned. From nudity to the open courting of outrage via political statements (and sometimes, downright poor taste), here are 20 provocative covers that rocked the music world and faced the most backlash. We proceed chronologically. A post shared by Euronews Culture (@euronewsculture) While hardly controversial compared to some of the other covers in this list, that's a downright unfortunate title to go with this image. And isn't the one on the right an uncanny dead ringer for a young Stephen Fry? Unsettling. It's not one of the Fab Four's most famous albums, but certainly their most notorious. Photographer Robert Whitaker took a snap of the band in white butcher's coats, surrounded by raw meat and dismembered baby dolls. Paul McCartney claimed it was a comment against the Vietnam War. US retailers were shocked and refused to stock the album, leading to it being withdrawn and reissued with a more vanilla alternative. Today, the 'Butcher cover' is available in pirated form. Those lucky enough to own an original pressing have an expensive and coveted piece of music history. The cover for the avant-garde 'Two Virgins' captures John Lennon and Yoko Ono completely naked. It sparked outrage, leading distributors to clandestinely sell the album wrapped in brown paper bags. At the end of the 1960s, Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker founded a supergroup with Steve Winwood and Ric Grech. They released only one album together, and to mark the occasion, they enlisted photographer Bob Seidemann. His image features a young topless girl holding a model spaceship. The image was considered deeply problematic and was promptly banned and replaced with a more classic shot of the band members. The Stones have had several album cover controversies over the years, including 'Beggar's Banquet''s artwork which featured a graffiti covered bathroom wall. However, it's the band's ninth studio album, designed by Andy Warhol, matched with its inuendo-heavy title, which rubbed censors up the wrong way. It features a suggestive denim-clad crotch and the original pressing of the LP also had a working fly which unzipped to reveal white underwear. The cover was famously banned in Spain, which was under the fascist rule of General Franco at the time. Photographer Eric Boman's shot of Constanze Karoli and Eveline Grunwald led many US outlets to censor the image, feeling uncomfortable with the sight of scantily clad models. Thankfully, most European distributors weren't irked by the sight of lingerie. There's misguided and then there's what was going on in the minds of German rockers Scorpions in 1976. The album titled 'Virgin Killer' depicts a naked 10-year-old girl with broken glass covering her genitalia. The controversy led to a bump in sales, but it remains to this day one of the most censored album covers in music history. NB: Euronews Culture has decided to blur the image since this album cover has been deemed by many as child pornography. Sex Pistols' only studio album caused plenty of pearl clutching when it was released in 1977. A record shop owner in Nottingham, UK, was arrested for displaying the records. This led to an obscenity-related court case, as he was charged for contravening the Indecent Advertisement Act 1889. The charges were eventually dropped. All because of the word 'bollocks'. All it took was a female-led punk outfit appearing topless and covered in mud for everyone to collectively lose their minds. Considering the sheer amount of topless men on album covers, the only words that come to mind are: deal with it. With an album title like that, it was pretty obvious that the (cheeky) cover image would cause some outrage. There are no words. It's one of the most famous album covers in the world but the artwork for Nirvana's grunge masterpiece proved divisive at the time of its release. It features a photo taken by Kirk Weddle of a four-month-old nude baby named Spencer Elden. Kurt Cobain refused for it to be censored, but did state that he would agree to a sticker covering the penis, reading: 'If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile.' It didn't come to that. However, several decades later, Elden attempted to sue Nirvana for violating US federal child pornography protections with the image, arguing that it resulted in 'lifelong damages'. The suit was eventually dismissed. Rap pioneer Ice Cube was no stranger to controversy, what with the headline-grabbing lyrics of N.W.A's 'Fuck Tha Police.' But with 'Death Certificate', he sparked further outrage with the image of a corpse identified as Uncle Sam. The famous rap-metal band's debut album depicts the infamous self-immolation of Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức in 1963, protesting the persecution of Buddhists by South Vietnam's US-backed government. The graphic image caused outrage. Not displeased with the situation, frontman Zach de la Rocha famously burned a US flag at Woodstock '99. The question remains: Could anyone really be surprised with a name like Rage Against The Machine? Heavy metal has always been a genre that has courted controversy, and there are numerous album covers that have shocked over the years. For their 1994 album, titled 'Youthanasia', Megadeth wanted to comment on the fact that society was euthanizing the young. The visual depiction of this ended up being a woman hanging babies by their feet on her washing line. A bit on-the-nose, but it was enough to get everyone freaking out. Marilyn Manson has always pushed the envelope when it comes to taste, and the controversial rocker did just that in 2000 for the album 'Holy Wood (In The Shadow Of The Valley Of Death)'. The disturbing cover depicts Manson as a crucified Christ, which led US stores to ban it completely. Considering that the controversial shock rocker's intended purpose was to critique censorship and that the previous albums 'Mechanical Animals' and 'Portrait Of An American Family' also sparked moral panic, the reaction to the artwork must have delighted him. European fans of New York rockers The Strokes were treated with the original cover of their stunning debut album, featuring a leather gloved hand on a naked hip. The US were quick to call foul, however, disapproving of the suggestive nature of the image. The band had to swap the gorgeous shot by Colin Lane – who spontaneously took a picture of his then-girlfriend after she came out of the shower. The replacement? A psychedelic but far less impactful depiction of subatomic particle tracks. In 2001, US hip-hop group The Coup, composed of Boots Riley and DJ Pam the Funktress, wanted to make a statement about destroying capitalism. Their idea: pose in front of the World Trade Center on fire. The image was conceived prior to 9/11 and the eerie timing of the album's November release meant that they had to replace the image with a martini glass on fire. Probably for the best. The cover for Ted Nugent's album was pulled before it hit shelves - and considering the misogynist credentials of this particular image, it might have been for the best. The sleeve for 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' saw a painting of a naked Kanye West being straddled by a winged female monster with sharp teeth. The controversial rapper refused for the image be pulled, but the record label reached a compromise by pixelating the image in some territories. Sabrina Carpenter's 'Man's Best Friend' is released on 29 August.
