Ethnic band celebrates fifth anniversary

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Celebrating their fifth anniversary, a Mongolian ethnic-ballad music band Hoshogton is planning a series of events in the coming days. Opening the celebration events, a complimentary lecture will be delivered by the band members in the Student Theater of the Culture and Art University this Friday. After the lecture, Hoshogton will perform for students, along with a state-prized artist D.Sosorbaram. A concert by band musicians Ch.Amarbayasgalan and G.Adiyadorj will be performed in Opera and Ballet Theater on May 13. The duo concert will be followed by an anniversary concert of the band in autumn of 2014. The group was established in March of 2009 with six professional musicians to promote and popularize Mongolian ethnic music. Besides the group, all the members are musicians at the National Song and Dance Academic Ensemble. Their performance usually consists of melodies of folk music instruments such as Grand Fiddle, Horse Head Fiddle, Bagpipe, Zither, Dzimbe (Drum), and Dombor (Stringed Instrument Resembling a Lute) etc, and overtone singing. Five members of the group perform A Cappella with overtone singing. Their achievements include grand Prix at ‘Mongolian Hoomii” International Symposium and Festival, May 2009, in Ulaanbaatar; gold medal for A cappella at Delphic III International Cultural Olympics in S.Korean Jeju, September 2009, and grand Prix at “Breath of Earth” 5th International Festival in Russia’s Ulan-Ude, November of 2009. The group was also voted as BBC radio ‘World Routes” most favorite group and performance in 2010 and subsequently performed in Royal Albert Hall, London amid BBC Proms “Human Planet” concert in 2011. The word khosog mean a cart of pastoral nomads. ‘Khosogton’ means nomads, or more precisely people who move with carts. Moreover, the word describes the process of moving such as camel, horse and yak caravans, herd of livestock, and people guiding them etc.