Tuvan actor Eduard Ondar, who plays the title role in the film “Secret of Genghis Khan”, the premiere of which successfully transpired in many regions of Russia, was nominated as a candidate for the title of “Siberian of the Year”. Altogether 32 candidates for this title were nominated by the internet portals of various regions of Siberia. After internet voting, which will take place on the site www.sib21vek.ru during the seven work days and two non-working days – from March 31 to April 8, seven Siberians with the greatest number of votes will receive the honorary title “Siberian – 2008”.

Alash are featuredas guest artists on a CD which has just won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. The album, Jingle All the Way, presents familiar American holiday music in innovative and imaginative arrangements by the celebrated American band Béla Fleck & the Flecktones. Grammy Awards are given by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States for outstanding achievements in the music industry. The announcement was made at the 51st Grammy Awards ceremonies in Los Angeles on February 7, 2009.

The premiere of the full-length, artistic film “Secret of Genghis Khan” (By the Will of Genghis Khan), produced in Yakutia, will take place in Ulan-Bator on February 19.

In Russia, the showing will be on March 12, 2009. In the capital of Buryatia, according to the numbers of tickets sold in each movie theatre where the premiere will be held, it should be a true Yakut diamond.

A Discussion of the reporter from Tuvinskaya Pravda with the poet and dramaturgist, member of the Writers’ Union and Union of Theatre Workers of Russia, Merited Artist of Republic Tuva, Eduard Mizhit.

-Eduard Bairovich, tell us, please, briefly, about the history of making the play.

-Many years ago, during a discussion with the outstanding director, now a Merited Artist of Russian Federation, national artist Alexei Oorzhak, it became clear that our interests and ideas concerning history of Tuva and its present are very similar.

At that time the idea of producing a trilogy about the ancient history of Tuva was born. The historical drama-essay, which later also became a spectacle, “Who are you, Subedei?” became its first part. The historical drama “Kultegin” is the second part of the planned trilogy. The drama was written in 1996, and in 1997, there were some additions and corrections.

On January 31, at 11:00 am, in the Museum of A. Grin, an exhibition of drawings of the remarkable young artist from Moscow, Nadia Rusheva, will be opened. Art historians called her a girl-genius, “the greatest of the young, and the youngest of the great”. Nadia’s life ended abruptly at the age of 17 years. Her parents donated her drawings to the museum dedicated to the works of A.Grin.

In Kyzyl, the premiere of the spectacle “Kultegin”, produced by director Alexei Oorzhak after the epic drama by Eduard Mizhit, was presented to a full house. The subject of the drama is based on the text of the famous monument of Orkhon-Yenisei writing of VI-VII Centuries, carved on a stone stele, concerning the life history of the “hero of all Turks”, Kultegin, Prince of the Eastern Turkic Khanate.

The all-female throat-singing group Tyva Kyzy sang in Olympia during its first U.S. tour. That stop, in 2005, was the first performance at South Puget Sound Community College's Minnaert Center for the Arts. On Friday, the group - whose name is pronounced "Tuva K'zih" - returns on its third tour. "It's our first repeat," said center director Cassandra Welliver.

The Tuvan National Orchestra has a new home on the Internet: http://www.tuvannationalorchestra.com. This English-language website includes audio clips of some of the Orchestra’s most popular songs, including “Men Tyva Men” (I am Tuvan), as well as video clips, photos, a brief history of the Orchestra, and a biographical sketch of Ayana Samiyaevna Mongush, the Orchestra’s brilliant artistic director.

Alash just wrapped up a tour of the United States that took them through Texas, the Midwest, and the Northeast. Their concerts were attended by a combination of amazed new fans and enthusiastic returning fans, some of whom traveled great distances and braved snow storms for the opportunity to hear Alash. Concert-goers were totally absorbed in the music commenting, “I could listen all night,” and “I felt myself traveling back to the times of the ancestors.” The musicians have such a good rapport with their audience that the crowd at Barbes in Brooklyn burst into a chorus of “Happy Birthday” when Sean Quirk mentioned that it was Ayan-ool Sam’s birthday.