Five students remembered two sides of Kenzhebek Kumysbekov’s classroom. Ykylas Nurgaliyev, Yermurat Usenov and Yerkin Nurymbetov identified the subjects. Zhalgasbek Begendik and Lyudmila Shaldinova remembered how he worked with a composition.
Instrument studies introduces the construction and capabilities of musical instruments; orchestration teaches how musical material is distributed among them. In the students’ accounts, both subjects become a single craft passed on by the teacher.
Ykylas Nurgaliyev’s student years
Ykylas Nurgaliyev entered the conservatory in 1979 and completed his studies in 1984. In his account of those years, he names Kumysbekov as his teacher of instrument studies. His account of those five years retained both the subject and the teacher’s name.
Yermurat Usenov’s orchestration
Yermurat Usenov remembers a different subject — orchestration. Speaking to Musicnews about his conservatory teachers, he says he studied it with Kumysbekov. His testimony shows how knowledge of instruments became work with musical material.
Yerkin Nurymbetov’s two subjects
Yerkin Nurymbetov entered the conservatory in 1992. In an interview with Kazinform, he associates instrument studies and orchestration with two teachers — Kenzhebek Kumysbekov and Bazarbai Zhumaniyazov. The two teachers stand together in this memory: the account does not divide the two subjects between them.
Freedom and exacting standards
The television essay Personality recorded more than the names of subjects: it also showed his manner of teaching. The student Zhalgasbek Begendik remembered that Kumysbekov demanded close attention to a work’s essence, depth and character. Lyudmila Shaldinova, who studied orchestration with him, described the other side of the same method: an imaginative freedom that the teacher only guided.
The craft passes on
Three musicians identified Kumysbekov as a teacher when speaking about their own conservatory years. Their accounts retain the names of the subjects. Two others remembered his method: exacting attention to meaning and freedom of imagination.
Years later the students recalled more than orchestration and instrument studies. They remembered the standard Kumysbekov set in class: understand the work and allow the musician to find an answer of their own. The craft passed on — together with the teacher’s name.