Mongolian folk-fusion trio Tuvergen Band will perform at the Foundry Theater Friday, May, 9, 7–9 p.m. The group is composed of, from left Brent Roman (percussion, didgeridoo), Tamir Hargana (lead vocals, folk lutes, morin khuur) and Naizal Hargana (morin khuur, vocals). (Submitted photo)
Tuvergen Band ‘gallops’ to the Foundry Theater
- Published: May 8, 2025
In Mongolian, the word “tuvergen” means “galloping” — and the Chicago-based Tuvergen Band is set to gallop onto the Foundry Theater stage Friday, May 9.
The band’s name holds special significance, connecting its trio of members — Tamir Hargana, Naizal Hargana and Brent Roman — to their music’s roots in Mongolian culture, for which horses are central figures in history, mythology and, naturally, its folk music.
Paying homage to that culture — and to the nomadic traditions that formed it — the band describes its works as “modern nomadic music,” fusing a range of instruments and techniques, including throat singing, the horse-head fiddle, percussion and didgeridoo.
The story of Tuvergen Band begins in another place famed for its connection to horses: Lexington, Kentucky. That’s where Tamir Hargana and Naizal Hargana — both master musicians from Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia — first met. Despite sharing a last name and country of origin, they had never crossed paths until both found themselves in Lexington, drawn to the area’s strong horse culture.
Tamir Hargana, a virtuoso of khoomii, or Mongolian and Tuvan overtone throat singing, told the News this month that he grew up surrounded by music. His parents were long song singers, an ancient form of Mongolian vocal art. He learned the morin khuur — the traditional fiddle adorned with a horse’s head at its fore — as a child, taught by a coworker of his parents. At the time, though, he said throat singing wasn’t as popular in Mongolia as folks might imagine, steeped as the culture was in Soviet influence for the majority of the 20th century.
“That tradition was kind of lost for a while,” he said, adding with a laugh: “When I first heard throat singing on the radio, I said, ‘Is our radio broken?’”
Tamir Hargana went on to study throat singing with a teacher beginning at age 17, and later in formal studies at Inner Mongolia University.
Naizal Hargana’s path was more self-directed, he said. Though his grandmother sang traditional long songs, no one in his family was a trained musician — but he was “so into music,” he said.
In 2008, he joined the Inner Mongolian Youth Choir’s Morin Khuur Ensemble, a group of young musicians and singers from Inner Mongolia who specialize in performing traditional music. After moving to the U.S., Naizal Hargana pursued classical music training at the University of Kentucky, joining a cello seminar and — in a move that would foretell Tuvergen Band’s future fusion style — performing western pieces on the horse-head fiddle.
Naizal Hargana later pursued his master’s degree at Northern Illinois University, where he and Tamir would meet percussionist and didgeridoo player Brent Roman. An ethnomusicologist with a deep background in world music, Roman said he has studied and toured globally, including with Cirque du Soleil. With over 20 percussion instruments in his custom hybrid drum kit, Roman said he likes to blend musical traditions into a fluid, sonic picture.
“I’m using drums and percussion from around the world, but I’m using it kind of like an artist uses paints,” he said.
Together, the three formed Tuvergen Band in Chicago, forming a shared musical language. Tamir Hargana’s rich, deep throat singing and folk lutes — including the tovshuur and doshpuluur — weave through Naizal Hargana’s morin khuur melodies, all grounded by Roman’s polyrhythmic soundscapes and droning didgeridoo.
What results is a sound that is perhaps best described as cinematic, by design evoking the very land from which the band’s foundational musical tradition was born.
“Because we often sing in Mongolian or Tuvan, our American audiences don’t understand the lyrics,” Tamir Hargana said. “But they can, through our music and our instruments, imagine horses galloping through the grasslands.”
Considering the number of traditional Mongolian instruments and techniques on display in the band’s repertoire, one can be forgiven for wondering how the didgeridoo — an Aboriginal Australian instrument — made its way into the mix.
“Yeah, I don’t think Australia and Mongolia could be further away from each other, and they’re completely different cultures,” Roman said. “But there are a lot of similarities, really — didgeridoo and throat singing are about imitation of animals and nature … in these two cradles of civilization. And with both, principally, it’s drone with overtones on top.”
He added that, when the band was first formed, there was talk of himself and Naizal Hargana doing some “backup throat singing” to support Tamir Hargana.
“And before I learned it, I was like, ‘Well, I’m the white guy in the room, I don’t know how to throat sing — but I play the didgeridoo,” Roman said.
Tamir Hargana noted that western audiences are often not familiar with the sounds unique to traditional Mongolian music — a fact he learned when he first came to the United States.
“When I first arrived, I realized not many people know Mongolian music — or where Mongolia is,” he said.
For that reason, there’s an educational element to Tuvergen Band’s performances. Each musician introduces and explains their instruments and how they connect to wider Mongolian culture.
“Sometimes you can have more appreciation for something if you understand it first,” Roman said. “I think part of our mission statement, so to speak, is to educate our audiences about Mongolian culture so they can have some understanding and appreciation.”
Outside of the educational element, the band said they aim for their shows to be immersive, inclusive and entertaining for all ages. Roman said audiences unfamiliar with Mongolian music may come in with preconceived notions about how to behave as an audience.
“And we try to dispel them of that pretty quickly,” he said. “If you want to get up and dance, feel free — this is music, so there are no rules here.”
Tamir Hargana told the News Tuvergen Band is looking forward to sharing Mongolian culture with Yellow Springs audiences — and to learning more about the village’s own culture.
“We’re going to try the local beer and local coffee — that’s our go-to thing,” he said with a laugh. “We’re going to learn a lot from the people over there, and hopefully people in Yellow Springs will learn from us.”
Tuvergen Band will perform at the Foundry Theater Friday, May 9, 7–9 p.m. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $12.50 for accessible rate and $5 for students, and are available online at bit.ly/TuvergenFoundry2025.
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