Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin

Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin (Kazakh: Рахат-Би Төлегенұлы Абдысагин; born February 2, 1999) is a composer, concert pianist, music theorist, and researcher from Kazakhstan.^[1] He is the author of three operas: The Path Lit by the Sun (2019), The Mysterious Lady (2019), and The Bruce (2023). His body of work includes over 150 music compositions, including solo pieces, chamber music, vocal works, concertos, and symphonies.^[2] He has been referred to in the media as the "Kazakh Mozart".^[3][4][5]

His awards include the State Youth Award "Daryn" of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2016), the Honorary Badge "For Merits in the Development of Culture and Art" of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly (2016), and the National Project's first ‘100 New Faces of Kazakhstan’ (2017). He is also a member of the Association of Tchaikovsky Competition Stars (2018). In 2024, he received the Silver Medal 2024 of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, London, UK.^[6][7]

Abdyssagin was born in Almaty on February 2, 1999. His father, Tolegen Kozhamkulov, is a theoretical physicist, and his mother, Gülmira Issimbayeva, is a politician, educator, and lawyer.^[8] He began composing music at the age of 10.^[9] He completed the standard seven-year curriculum at the music academy in three years, while simultaneously attending a gymnasium in Almaty.^[10]

At the age of 13, Abdyssagin enrolled at the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatoire and began a master’s program at the Kazakh National University of Arts at 17. He completed an internship at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire in Russia and defended his thesis at age 18 to earn a Master of Art Sciences degree in Music Composition.^[10] In 2015, he joined the International Council for Traditional Music and was recognized as the youngest speaker at the ICTM World Conference.^[11]

In 2017, Abdyssagin enrolled as the youngest PhD student at the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome specializing in composition. In 2019, he earned PhD degrees from Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan and Conservatorio Cesare Pollini in Padua.^[10][12][13] In 2024 Rakhat-Bi was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD in Music) by the University of St Andrews & Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, United Kingdom. He is the first in the history of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland to complete the doctoral studies in just two years (ahead of schedule).^[14]

In 2022, Verlag Neue Musik Berlin released his Selected Solo Works (Sammelband), a collection of solo pieces written for every symphony orchestra instrument. Rakhat-Bi is the second composer in the world to have completed a project of this type (following Luciano Berio's (1925-2003) cycle of sequenzas).^{[15][16][17][18]}

Rakhat-Bi's compositions are featured in South Illinois University's Global Discography of Music for Piano and Orchestra.^[19]

Music of R.-B. Abdyssagin is performed in concert halls across Europe, Asia and America, including venues such as Berlin Philharmonie,^[20][21] Berlin Konzerthaus, Vienna Konzerthaus,^[22] Salzburg Mozarteum, Carnegie Hall (New York), Royal Festival Hall (London),^[23] UNESCO Headquarters (Paris), the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), St George’s Hall – Grand Kremlin Palace (Moscow), D.D.Shostakovich Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, Grand Hall of Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and many major concert halls of Kazakhstan. Critics have said that the "music of Rakhat-Bi has a special structure and mathematical precision. It is full of poetry and passion".^[24]

He often plays the piano solo and gives symphonic portrait concerts and solo recitals. At age 19, he performed a solo recital on P. I. Tchaikovsky's piano in Tchaikovsky's House-Museum in Klin (Russia, 2018).^[25][26] Three of his piano CDs have been released in Germany (Kreuzberg Records, 2021-2023): ‘Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin plays Chopin and Liszt’,^[27] ‘Rakhat-Bi Abdyssagin plays Viennese Classics: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven’.^[28] In February-March 2024, the world premieres of Rakhat-Bi’s Cathedral Opera ‘The Bruce’ were held in four cities of the UK (Glasgow Cathedral,^[29][30] St Giles’ Cathedral Edinburgh, University of St Andrews – St Salvator's Chapel, Dunfermline Abbey^[31]).^{[32][33][34][35]} In this piece, Rakhat-Bi played the pipe organ.

In September 2024, Rakhat-Bi's Quantum Mechanics and Avant-Garde Music: Shadows of the Void^[36] was published by Springer Nature. The foreword was written by Vlatko Vedral. The endorsements on the back cover were written by Nobel laureate Hugh David Politzer, mathematician Ian Stewart FRS, and composer Tristan Murail. The book was reviewed by Sharon Ann Holgate in the Times Literary Supplement (No. 6372 from 16th May 2025),^[37][38] and by Ernst Peter Fischer in Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau (78 Jahrgang, Heft 2, 2025).^{[39][40][41][42]}

Between March and April of 2023, Rakhat-Bi researched music education as an Affiliate Academic at the University College London. Between October and December of that year, Rakhat-Bi was a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, University of Oxford,^[43] where he continued his research on correlations between quantum physics and contemporary music. Between October and December of 2024, he was an Academic Visitor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge, conducting research on the applicability of logic and set theory in the structural analysis of the timbral-textural dimension of avant-garde music.

He has given talks and presentations at scientific seminars at the universities of Oxford,^[44] Cambridge,^[45] UCL, LSE,^[46] Amsterdam,^[47][48] Heidelberg,^[49][50] Frankfurt, and Tübingen.

Since 2019, Rakhat-Bi has been the Founder, Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury of the International Composer Competition ‘New Music Generation’ (Astana, Kazakhstan).^[51][52]

• Kazakh Rhapsody for piano and symphony orchestra (2013)
• Forward into the Sunlight for violin and symphony orchestra (2014)
• The Will to Live for piano and symphony orchestra, published by Kompozitor Publishers in Moscow (2015)^[53]
• God’s Dwelling for symphony orchestra, published by Kompozitor Publishers in Moscow (2016)
• Aftersounds of Romanticism for symphony orchestra (2017)
• Beyond the Darkness for tenors choir and symphony orchestra on the poetry by Lord Byron (2017)^[54]
• Time Run for symphony orchestra (2018)^[55]
• Des Pensées de Loin for 24 flutes, a commission by Pierre-Yves Artaud and Orchestre de Flûtes Français (2018)^[56]
• Tears of Silence, concerto for piano and symphony orchestra (2018)^[57]
• A Drop of Eternity, concerto for violin and symphony orchestra (2018)^[58]
• The Sacred Universe of Particles for symphony orchestra (2018)^[59]
• Phantom Reflections, concerto for cello and symphony orchestra (2018)^[60]
• Shadows of the Void (2019)^[61]
• Serenade of Invisible Stars (2019)^[62]
• Quantum Reality (2020)
• Ghosts of Immortality (2020)^[63]
• Qubylys (2020)
• I raggi di Dante (2021)^[64]
• Chaos and Order (2023)^[65]