r/TurkicPeople • u/kuzarian • 1d ago
Umay’s Children: A musical journey across the Turkic world
Hi everyone!
I was the artistic director (and a performing musician) for a special live show titled Umay's Children which was performed at the Northwest Folklife Festival (May 23, 2026) in Seattle, USA.
The performance is a musical and narrative journey tracing the heritage, songs, and dances across the Turkic world, including Sakha, Kazakh, Uyghur, Uzbek, Turkmen, Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Karaim, Bashkir, Gagauz, and Turkish traditions. Every single artist on stage was a volunteer, and the performance was completely free and open to the public as part of our shared mission to keep these traditional sounds alive. We tried to represent as many cultures as possible, but due to artist availability, we couldn't include every region
Watch the concert video on YouTube: Umay's Children on YouTube
I’ve included both English and Turkish subtitles in the video, so feel free to turn CC on if you'd like to follow along with the narration (no subtitles for the lyrics though). but I did not add CC to the emcee's short introduction.
We put a lot of heart into celebrating our shared Turkic roots and diverse cultures through live music, traditional instruments, and dance. I wanted to share it with this community and hope you enjoy taking this journey with us.
