'A forceful and naturally musical work with very defined themes' - composer Asadbek Turgunov from Uzbekistan wins the 2025 Brusa Foundation Award

Asadbek Turgunov 

Last year composer and teacher Elisabetta Brusa introduced her Brusa Foundation Award in an article for us [see Elisabetta's article]. The award is to give opportunities to composers who recreate new, free and personal symphonic thought with a tonal basis. The winner of the second edition of the Award has now just been announced.

The Foundation Committee received 48 scores from 18 countries. From these they chose Maqom Simfoniya by Asabdek Turgunov from Tashkent, Uzbekistan to be the winner. The Committee said of the chosen work:

"We found Maqom Simfoniya a forceful and naturally musical work with very defined themes, fluidity and instrumentally colourful. The themes were rhythmically and harmonically full of forceful fantasy and included traits of a vivid cultural tradition and identity...We would also like to highlight how much we were impressed by the composer’s freedom of thought."

Asadbek Turgunov is an Uzbek composer, pianist, and arranger, born in 2000, in Andijan, Uzbekistan. He received his professional education at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, where he studied composition under Professor Mirkhalil Mahmudov. He later completed his master’s degree at the Botir Zokirov Institute of National Pop Art, deepening his exploration of musical synthesis between academic and popular idioms. His winning work can be heard on YouTube.

Full details from the Brusa Foundation's website.