Ohio Wesleyan Faculty Member to Perform in Hungary, Turkey, China
Gulimina Mahamuti
DELAWARE, OHIO – Gulimina Mahamuti, D.M.A, part-time assistant professor of music at Ohio Wesleyan University, has been invited by the ambassador of Turkey in Hungary to perform March 13-16 in Budapest. Mahamuti will perform with violinist Selim Giray, D.M., associate professor of violin and viola at Pittsburg State University.
The duo also will be featured March 20 as guest artists at the Turkish Music State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University. This concert will be recorded and broadcast by Istanbul Technical University.
From mid-May to June, Mahamuti and Giray will perform and give master classes in China at the invitations of several renowned music schools, including China Conservatory of Music (Beijing), Xi’an Conservatory of Music (Xi’an), School of Music at Northwest University for Nationalities (Lanzhou), and Xinjiang Conservatory of Music. Mahamuti and Selim also will perform in her hometown, Karamay, at the invitation of the Karamay Foreign Affair Office and Karamay Cultural Bureau.
On Jan. 8, the duo performed to a nearly full house at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York, receiving standing ovations after the first and second halves of the program. In addition to performing Turkish music for violin and piano, Mahamuti performed Xinjiang solo piano music from western China by Shi Fu and Chen Yi, including a premiere of Chen’s Variations on “Awariguli.”
Of the performance, Hüsamettin Ünsal wrote in a review for Musîki Dergisi (Journal of Music): “It was a … cultural phenomenon and a musical feast for the audience that packed the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. … Performed by violinist Selim Giray and pianist Gulimina Mahamuti, Emre Araci’s Bosphorus by Moonlight created the finale that embraced all common emotions and sonorities presented in previous compositions, and brought the audience to their feet as they applauded the composer and the performers.”
On April 14, Mahamuti will perform Benjamin Britten’s Piano Concerto, op. 13 with the Mansfield (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra, having performed previously with the Southeast Kansas Symphony Orchestra and the Harbin Symphony Orchestra in China.
Mahamuti, who joined the Ohio Wesleyan faculty in fall 2011, is the first Chinese Uyghur to receive a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the United States. Her life story, from her first piano lesson in Karamay to earning her doctorate, was the subject of a documentary in Gansu Province Public TV.
At Ohio Wesleyan, she teaches applied piano, class piano, and keyboard techniques. She is a nationally certified teacher of music in piano in the United States and previously taught at the conservatories of music of Capital University (U.S.) and Northwest University for Nationalities (China).
Mahamuti has been published in major music journals in both China and the United States. Her articles on piano education, pedagogy, and performance practices have appeared in prestigious Chinese journals, including the People’s Music. After extensive nationwide research, she presented information at the Music Teachers National Association Conference on how today’s economy has affected private music teaching. Her article, “Professional Development Makes You Recession-Resistant,” was published in Clavier Companion; it was translated into Italian and appears in Didattica.
She recently recorded a CD of Xinjiang Piano Music from Western China, featuring works by Chen Yi and Shi Fu. Her master’s thesis in China on Shi Fu’s Xinjiang Piano Suites from an Eastern-Islamic Music Vantage Point has become the main reference for Chinese and Western music scholars in their research and writing about his life and compositions.
Mahamuti earned her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from University of Missouri-Kansas City. She received two Master of Music degrees, one in piano performance from Pittsburg State University and one in piano performance and piano pedagogy from Harbin Normal University. She is a board member of Central East District of Ohio Music Teachers Association and chairs its piano workshops.
Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier small, private universities, with more than 90 undergraduate majors, sequences, and courses of study, and 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Located in Delaware, Ohio, just minutes north of Ohio’s capital and largest city, Columbus, the university combines a globally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities that translate classroom theory into real-world practice. OWU’s close-knit community of 1,850 students represents 47 states and 57 countries. Ohio Wesleyan was named to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction, is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” and is included on the “best colleges” lists of U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Learn more at www.owu.edu.