Kazakh High School Students Take Stage With IFLC Performance of Unity

Back stage at the Stafford Centre, the City of Stafford’s largest performing arts venue, the 24th International Festival of Languages and Cultures is gearing up to start. It’s hard not to ignore the palpable excitement brewing among the 70 students from around the world scrambling here and there for last-minute costume changes and preparation.

And among them, 14-year-old Alniyaz Yermekov remains composed. Hailing from the city of Atrau, in the western part of Kazakhstan, he is busy memerising the lyrics for one of the songs he will be performing for the evening. Within half an hour, Yermekov will give the performance of his life singing Turkish, English and Azeri songs in front of a packed house of 1,700 people.  “When today started, I was worried because I never performed on an international stage like this,” he says as he waits for the stage curtains to open, adding “but I’m sure that the festival will be great.”

Yermekov, a student at Atrau Bil School for Gifted Boys, like his fellow Kazakh co-performers Maksat Adil, Abilmansur Zinaddin and Batyr Ibragimov, all 10th graders from Almaty Bilim Innovation School for Gifted Boys, is understandably confident. That’s because they, like the other performers that are participating the night’s event, have learned something valuable over the last ten days preparing for the 24th International Festival of Languages and Cultures (IFLC): unity among diversity.

On the heels of its European tour, the night’s Stafford show, organized by the Raindrop Foundation, a Houston-based nonprofit aimed at fostering dialog and improved understanding between cultures, takes inspiration from Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and even includes a modern interpretation of Vivaldi’s poignant composition. It’s message of community resonates the world over. And for these four teenagers, traveling halfway around the world, tonight’s experience and the 10 days leading up to it in rehearsals testify to it.

Magda Căliuianu, a 16-year-old from Romania has participated once before in 2022 for IFLC.  According to Căliuianu, IFLC and other participants create have fostered a close-knit bond that makes the experience all the more unforgettable. “Everyone from IFLC is like a family for me,” she says.

High School students from as far away as Romania, Kenya, Papua Guinea, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, France, Germany, Australia, South Africa, India, Indonesia and Tanzania make up the chorus of performers for the evening. In total, the students will sing 20 songs in 18 languages in two acts for a sold-out house.

US Representative Randy Weber points to unity as a cornerstone of greatness both for the United States and the world. Applauding the demonstration of working together from the students, organizers and volunteers demonstrate this quality, he also emphasizes to the attending audience how IFLC exemplifies this quality. “It’s events like this that remind us of the potential we have when we come together, honoring our differences while reinforcing our shared commitment to a brighter future,” he says.

For the students, the sense of unity comes alive from interacting and performing with other students from other nationalities impressed the four students. Ibragimov, 17, from Almaty, for example, had never been to the US or encountered the wide range of cultures as he did with the other performers while rehearsing during his stay in Houston.

Ibragim points to how the festival and the 10 days leading up to the night’s event opened his eyes to a wider world. “It was such an amazing experience to speak with another culture such as Kenya, Indonesia, Romania. It’s very interesting to know each other better and to just speak with other people,” he says.

Orhan Osman serves as president and CEO of the American Turkic Business Council, a partnering organizer of the IFLC event in Stafford and a Houston-based nonprofit aimed at facilitating commerce between US, Turkic and other countries. He is cognizant of the impact the experience will have on the students. Not only will they be able to engage in other cultures, but they do so through the diversity of dance and art. “These children, despite coming from different regions, achieved wonderful things in a short time by speaking the language of love,” he says.

For Yermekov, as he prepares to step onto the stage, this language of love through the music he shares with fellow students from around the world takes on more significant meaning. It will live on within the memories of these four young Kazakhs, their coperformers and those in attendance.