On May 22, 2024 the Department of English Language and Literature held a commemorative matinee event at Khazar University   Fikrat Amirov Conference-Concert Center. The event was dedicated to the 460th birthday anniversary of William Shakespeare. 

The head of the Department of English Language and Literature Dr. Milana Abbasova delivered a welcome speech to greet the attendance. Senior teacher Firangiz Nasirova’s emotive speech was interspersed with popular quotes from Shakespeare elicited from the student audience. 

Khazar University alumnus Kamran Nasirov then shared his experience of being introduced to Shakespeare’s plays and delivered a very artistic interpretation of the world-famous monolog from Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet.”

The participant Khazar University students and students from Azerbaijan University of Languages  presented a series of sonnets, a monolog fragment from Othello, and R. L. Stevenson’s poem inspired by a Shakespeare’s play.  A student choir conducted by F. Nasirova sang an ever popular song from a 1968 screen version of “Romeo and Juliet” and picked up by the audience.

A true highlight of the event was a stage performance of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth” by the student actors of the Khazar University Art Club led by the second year students Shayeste Malekan and Ramala Hasanova.  Their creative and inspired performance left nobody in the audience untouched.

At the end of the event, Prof. Hamlet Isaxanli addressed the audience and the student actors and performers to commend the actors on their animated and talented performance and expressed a hope that their artistic spirit should find new venues and larger audiences. 

Senior instructor of Azerbaijan University of Languages Tarana Hasanova shared her impressions of the program and students’ performances and stressed the value of cooperation between the universities.

When the event presenter English Language and Literature Department coordinator Tamella Mammadli closed the event, the spirit of the shared experience lingered with the audience and left everyone with a shared felling of an experience that is festive, meaningful, and fulfilling.