An American devotee of the ancient Azerbaijani musical tradition known as mugham - Jeffrey Werbock, has been introducing western audiences to this remarkable and unique genre for more than four decades. Having learned that some Azerbaijani children are capable of performing this most sophisticated form of their national music, he arranged for an expedition to Azerbaijan to film this truly remarkable phenomenon. Jeffrey learned that the children from the region known as Karabakh are regarded as particularly talented at performing this complex art form, so he set out to find them.
In the aftermath of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over the region of Karabakh, over one million Azerbaijani’s fled their ancestral homeland seeking refuge in tents, mud brick dwellings and animal railway containers. Despite the harsh living conditions and the injustice of being forced by war from their ancestral homeland, witnessing the devotion and determination to preserve their traditional music was astonishing.
Eight years later Jeffrey returned to Azerbaijan on a quest to search for the children he met during the first expedition, now grown up, to find out if they continue to play and sing, to find the next generation of children mugham artists, and to see if this venerable musical tradition has a future.