Kurmangazy Sagyrbaiuly is a famous Kazakh folk musician of the 19th century, dombrist, composer, author of kuiys, and founder of the folk dombyra school.

According to various sources, Kurmangazy was born in 1818 or in 1823 in the Bukeyevskaya Horde (West Kazakhstan region) in a family from the Bayuly family of the Younger Zhuz. He became interested in playing the dombyra from an early age. His father Sagyrbai had not approved of such an occupation. On the contrary, his mother Alka supported her son in his love of music. There were famous singers, kyuishies and poets in her family. At the age of six, his parents had to send their son to be a shepherd. At the same time, the young Kurmangazy did not leave dombyra, he loved to listen to the kyuishies who visited his village. One of them, named Uzak, saw the boy’s special interest in music and predicted a great future for him.

At the age of 18, Kurmangazy started wondering a life of kyuishi. Kurmangazy had studied with such famous personalities as Baibakty, Sherkesh, Baizhum, Yeszhan and Balamaysan at that time. Along with Uzak, he participated in the competitions of performers and became one of the outstanding dombrists. Having witnessed the struggle of the Kazakhs for freedom and independence, Kurmangazy began to compose his own kyuis about it.

In 1880, Kurmangazy settled near Astrakhan, in the town of Sakhma, gathering around him the students and successors of the performing arts. Yergali Eszhanov, Dina Nurpeissova, Mamen, Makhambet Utemisov were among them. Many people called him the “Father of kyuis” (“Kyui atasy”), as his works had a huge impact on the development of national musical culture and Kazakh folk poetry.

First of all, Kurmangazy became famous, as the author of kyuis (instrumental pieces for dombyra), which are characterized by figurative expressiveness and perfection of forms. Also, Kurmangazy was a virtuoso performer. 60 kyuis of the composer have come down to our time. Among the first was the “Kishkentai” kyui. Kurmangazy witnessed the uprising of the Kazakhs of the Bukeyev Horde against Dzhangir khan. He became the mouthpiece of the people’s liberation movement, for which he fell out of favor with the authorities. “Sary-Arka” kyui is called the pinnacle of his work. “He has the longing of an exile for his native land, a broad way of folk life, and the best that is inherent in the folk character”, wrote a musicologist Akhmet Zhubanov in the book “Strings of Centuries”.

At present, the country has an orchestra of folk instruments named after Kurmangazy.

The Kurmangazy Kazakh National Orchestra of Folk Instruments is the first and unique orchestra in the history of instrumental musical art in Kazakhstan. It introduced a Kazakh musical culture, the incomparable melodies of the steppes and unique Kazakh musical instruments to the whole world.

In 1944, the orchestra was named after a great kyuishi and folk musician Kurmangazy Sagyrbaiuly. Since 1967, it has been the “Honored collective of Kazakhstan”, and since 1978, it has been working as an academic orchestra. In 1984, the orchestra was awarded the order of “Friendship of Peoples”, and in 2020, by the decree of the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the collective was awarded a national status. In 2023, a musical community of the country celebrated the 200th anniversary of the great Kazakh kyuishi.