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Masguda Shamsutdinova: Kazan Should Have a "Lullabies of the World" Museum
Masguda Shamsutdinova’s works are performed worldwide. Her music accompanied the grand opening of the Kul-Sharif Mosque. In 2002, she moved to America but frequently visits her native Kazan. This time, the reason for her long transoceanic flight was the 1st International Contemporary Music Festival named after Sofia Gubaidullina, “CONCORDIA.” Seizing the opportunity, we joyfully invited Masguda Islamovna for tea at the editorial office of Kazan News.
Introducing our guest:
Masguda Shamsutdinova, Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan, was born in a small Tatar village in Bashkiria and studied at a special school for musically gifted children in Kazakhstan. At nineteen, she entered the Kazan Conservatory. She has won numerous awards and special prizes for her music in films and theater productions. Her works include instrumental and choral pieces across various genres—songs, oratorios, ballets, and symphonies. Over twenty years, she traveled the region on ethnographic expeditions. In America, she launched the online radio www.tatars.com, broadcasting Turkic folk music and works by Tatar composers 24/7.
To Seattle by Guesswork
The emergence of a contemporary music festival in Kazan is wonderful. Usually, audiences are lured to modern music concerts with classics—popular works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, or Wagner, with a touch of contemporary composers’ pieces. Here, it’s all honest, shared Masguda Islamovna.
• Olga Ivanycheva: How ready is the Kazan audience to embrace often experimental modern music?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: I can compare Kazan audiences to young American ones. They’re just as eager for new experiences, open to new knowledge and emotions.
• Olga Ivanycheva: You moved to America nine years ago. It must have been tough starting from scratch in a foreign country?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: I left at 47, but it wasn’t my idea. I went like a mother hen following her chicks. My sons are as curious as I am. The younger, Nadir, always wanted to work in space technology; the elder, Salikh, in programming. When we won green cards, we decided to go.
• Olga Ivanycheva: How did you end up in Seattle?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: My husband wanted New York, Nadir wanted Silicon Valley, Salikh wanted Chicago, but they said, “You choose!” They blindfolded me, I pointed at a U.S. map, and landed on Seattle—a quiet, cozy, green city. There, I got a spacious studio apartment with a stunning view of the ocean and snow-capped mountains.
• Olga Ivanycheva: Does America offer opportunities to succeed?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: Yes, if you treat America well, it treats you well. It provides an equal starting point for everyone. Their principle is: if you don’t have, they give; if you have, they take. They helped us. I brought my talented sons to the U.S. They got an education there, with the state seriously supporting promising students. My younger son, to fulfill his dream, had to get U.S. citizenship and join the army. He became an aeronautics engineer and recently landed a good job. The elder is studying, my husband is working. Now my men say, “Mom, what do we do with all this money?” They know I fear going hungry—a fear from childhood when we didn’t have enough to eat. I tried my first apple at eleven, and that was a real “Wow!”
Singing Keepers of Khan’s Treasures
• Olga Ivanycheva: What has America given you personally?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: In Kazan, I was very busy: lectures, theater, radio, television. I had no time for large works. There, I focus entirely on music. I return here with new energy.
• Olga Ivanycheva: You even earned a translator’s diploma…
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: I desperately wanted to learn English, but it mocked me, keeping me at bay. I wrote each word down 500 times to memorize it, and I got my translator’s diploma. Nothing is too hard for a person—just start doing it. I absorb English now. Before, in a new linguistic environment, I felt like I was in a dark room; now it’s much brighter, and it feels like English is smiling at me.
• Olga Ivanycheva: Masguda Islamovna, who instilled your love for music?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: Since childhood, I’ve looked at objects and felt their sound, taste, and smell. My mom was a beekeeper. She made me go to the apiary at 5 a.m., and we listened to the bees buzzing. She explained: this is a guard bee, this is a honey bee, these will fly miles to gather honey. Mom had a beautiful voice. Dad was jealous when she sang, probably fearing anyone who heard her would fall in love. He sensed its power. Dad was a healer without higher education, diagnosing illnesses by eye color or voice. I have that ability too—I can tell a person’s illness by their voice’s timbre or intonation. Many say my music is a great antidepressant and healer.
• Olga Ivanycheva: Have you traced your ancestry?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: No, but there’s a family legend that my maternal ancestors were keepers of khan’s treasures, entrusted with the keys to the vaults. Later, I realized these were the most reliable, honest people trusted with the most precious things.
Insomnia – Humanity’s Woe
• Olga Ivanycheva: Your unique Lullabies of the World disc has captivated America…
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: They even call me Lady Lullaby. I’ve been collecting these songs for years, and in each, I hear a mother’s voice. We recorded ordinary people from different countries. For example, a man sings a lullaby for his wife, a nurse who comes home exhausted from a night shift and can’t sleep, so he gently soothes her. A seven-year-old girl sings for her three-year-old sister. These are such moving stories. My collection includes lullabies from Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Somalia, Vietnam, India, Palestine…
• Olga Ivanycheva: What unites lullabies from different countries?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: Love. A lullaby isn’t a song or music—it’s the soul of any nation. I call it the crystal code of maternal love. When a mother sings a lullaby, she weaves magic, a kind of hypnosis. One woman sings, “My bed is too small for my sorrow…” An Arab lullaby goes, “Sleep, my child, when you sleep, you’ll forget you’re hungry.” A Greek mother promises, “Sleep, and I’ll give you Constantinople.” A Moroccan lullaby says, “Sleep quickly, and when you do, we’ll go to the neighbors for tea.” A Tatar lullaby: “Sleep, and in your dreams, Mommy will give you a star.” I think lullabies gave rise to human speech, with the first word expressing a mother’s tenderness for her child. All animals and birds sing or chirp to their young, passing on love and knowledge about the world. This is fascinating and valuable research. Humanity suffers from insomnia, a serious civilization problem, and lullabies help restore sleep.
• Olga Ivanycheva: Surely this project won’t be limited to one disc?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: My big dream is to create a Lullabies of the World museum in Kazan. It shouldn’t just display cradles from all times and peoples or play music. The museum must use cutting-edge technology to transform into a large concert hall, cozy exhibition spaces, or a modern conference room. We all come from the cradle. We want to preserve the Earth, and this idea should start in Kazan. I feel Kazan will soon become a deeply spiritual city for the whole world.
“We Just Missed the Volcano”
• Olga Ivanycheva: Do you feel Kazan changing?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: The city has improved greatly, but some things, sadly, stay the same—like potholes on the roads. I come every year and notice more potholes in our courtyard. If I had a car, I’d bring a bag of gravel myself to fill them so they don’t bother anyone. Why don’t people think of such a simple solution?
• Olga Ivanycheva: Masguda Islamovna, does it matter which ensemble performs your works?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: When Alexander Sladkovsky’s symphony orchestra performed, I had nothing to do—they brought out things in my music I’d forgotten. Plus, the orchestra is young, and I love young people. Their new instruments are superb! But if an orchestra plays poorly, I might step in with suggestions. When they play better than I wrote, you sit amazed, thinking, “Is this really my work?” I’m always glad when my pieces are performed. I even post my music and scores online. People are surprised: “Why give your music away for free? You could make money!” But if I made money from music, I couldn’t compose. Let them take it, play it, listen!
Quick Questions
• Olga Ivanycheva: What’s your strongest childhood memory?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: At 11, I had a cultural shock in Karaganda at a music boarding school. I entered a new linguistic environment. They wanted to send me to a sports school, but we didn’t make it there and ended up at the music school nearby. To get in, I had to sing. I only knew the Soviet anthem in Russian because, in our village, it played on the radio every morning. I sang it so well they had to accept me!
• Olga Ivanycheva: Have you been in extreme situations?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: Yes, I nearly got caught in a volcano eruption in Iceland last year. I was flying from the U.S. to Russia. We just missed it. Rubin Abdullin even joked, “The volcano smokes, the earth shakes, Masguda races home!”
• Olga Ivanycheva: Besides the Lullabies of the World museum, what do you dream of?
• Masguda Shamsutdinova: I dream of seeing the steppe bloom in spring. I haven’t managed it yet. The steppe in Washington State is just two hours away by car—cross the mountains, and you’re there.
intrerview by Olga Ivanycheva
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