In 1987 the tenth track on side two of Kenzhebek Kumysbekov’s composer album was The Dancing Birches. The recording had been made a year earlier by the Otyrar Sazy State Folklore and Ethnographic Orchestra under Nurgisa Tlendiyev.
Forty years separate that recording from the digital release of Bishi Qaiyn performed by the Kurmangazy Orchestra. Between them stand Zaurbek Raibayev’s 1989 production and an Otyrar Sazy concert programme from 2025. One piece thus passes through a record, a staged dance, a concert hall and the digital age.
Before the dance, there was a record
The Melodiya record S30 25225 006 brought together twelve works by Kumysbekov. The first six were performed by the Kurmangazy Orchestra under Shamgon Kazhgaliyev. Side two — tracks seven to twelve — was recorded by the Otyrar Sazy orchestra under Nurgisa Tlendiyev.
In this sequence, The Dancing Birches stood between My Youth and The Daughter-in-Law. The catalogue dates the recording to 1986 and the release to 1987. The Russian title appeared on the composer album before researchers dated the production of Bishi Qaiyn.
The record and the production have different lives. The former preserved an orchestral recording; the latter carried the title onto the stage. Chronology joined two early lives of The Dancing Birches: first recorded repertoire, then dance.
The title enters a staged dance
By 1989 the choreographer Zaurbek Raibayev had staged Bishi Qaiyn for the Saltanat dance ensemble. The date and the title’s translation — “the dancing birches” — are given in a scholarly article about the history of Kazakh staged dance.
On the following page the authors also name the music — Kenzhebek Kumysbekov’s. Composer, choreographer, ensemble and year of production thus come together in one study.
In their analysis, the researchers connect the swaying branches to the choreographic pattern of the dance. This is the choreographic image of Raibayev’s production. They name the music after its creator — Kenzhebek Kumysbekov.
In an Otyrar Sazy programme once more
Almost four decades later, Bishi Qaiyn appeared again beside the name of the Otyrar Sazy orchestra. In 2025 the ensemble performed in Zhezkazgan at the S. Kozhamkulov Regional Kazakh Music and Drama Theatre. The concert marked Republic Day.
The Zhambyl Philharmonic’s report names Kenzhebek Kumysbekov’s Bishi Qaiyn among the works in the programme. The report confirms that the orchestra performed Kumysbekov’s work at the named theatre.
Here the work returned to the same ensemble that had recorded the second side of the 1986 album. Almost four decades separate the two appearances. This is the measure of Bishi Qaiyn’s return to Otyrar Sazy’s concert repertoire.
In the hands of another orchestra
On 11 June 2026 the Kurmangazy Orchestra announced the release of its recordings on global digital platforms. Kumysbekov’s Bishi Qaiyn appeared in the published list of those recordings.
A separate Altyn Qor page names the same work, Kumysbekov and the Kurmangazy Orchestra, and offers an archival recording to hear. The orchestra’s announcement places it among the digital releases, while the archival page makes a recording available to listeners.
Forty years ago, The Dancing Birches was the tenth track on a record; the title then entered Raibayev’s production, returned to an Otyrar Sazy programme and appeared in the Kurmangazy Orchestra’s published list of digital recordings. The record, concert report, digital announcement and archival audio trace forty years of orchestral performance.