Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and proud nomadic history, whose musical traditions are as varied, rich and vibrant as the land and people who gave them life. Out of this diverse ethnic milieu comes Aza Sydykov, possibly the country’s most gifted and successful classical pianist to date, whose fate was intertwined with the establishment of his homeland’s independence. While Kyrgyzstan was formally annexed to Russia in 1876, the Kyrgyz people