The programme celebrates the repertory of Central Asian classical music known as Shashmaqom (“six maqoms”), where instrumental pieces, lyrical song, poetry, and dance are bound together in an artistic conception of refinement and profound beauty. The roots of Shashmaqom are linked with Samarkand and Bukhara where performers and audiences included Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Bukharan Jews. The lyrical expressiveness of the maqom conveys the sublime beauty and allegorical power of poetry by Hafez, Jamî, Nawâ’î, Amirî, Bedil and Mashrab. Composed in the genres of ghazal, mukhammas, and rubaî, the texts are redolent with symbols drawn from Sufism--the figure of the beloved, alluding to the invisible presence of the divine.