Celebrating its 50th anniversary, Istanbul Music Festival will offer a rich program to listeners under the theme of Istanbul this year
Organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), under the sponsorship of Borusan Holding and with the contributions of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Istanbul Music Festival will meet with music lovers for the 50th time between June 6 and 24 this year.
Bringing 45,000 artists and ensembles from Turkey and many different countries of the world together with more than 3.5 million listeners in its half-century history, the festival has also been instrumental in the composition of 20 new pieces of classical music. It has supported dozens of young artists with incentive awards and funds as well.
The 50th edition of the festival will host over 65 soloists, ensembles and orchestras from Turkey and abroad in 12 different venues for three weeks with the theme of "Istanbul." As part of the event, the works commissioned by the festival to conductor and composer Tan Dun and conductor and pianist Thomas Ades will have their Turkish premieres.
Within the scope of the Istanbul Music Festival, free concerts will be held in different parks and venues of Istanbul on weekends as well as workshops for children and youth, organized in collaboration with IKSV Alt Kat. The festival's classic talks held before the concerts will also continue this year.
Festival tickets are available for general sale at passo.com.tr and at the IKSV main box office.
The Honorary Award of the 50th Istanbul Music Festival will be presented to composer and educator Professor Özkan Manav while the Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to world-renowned conductor and composer Tan Dun.
Well-recognized figures
The festival will be launched on the night of June 6 with a unique concert to be held at the Opera Hall of AKM. The Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the opening concert under the baton of conductor Aziz Shokhakimov. The soloist of the festival will be Kirill Gerstein, an American pianist of Russian origin.
Fazıl Say will be a guest of the festival with his famous first symphony "Istanbul," which brought him the ECHO Klassik Award in 2013. The symphony, consisting of seven separate parts, each of which depicts a separate aspect of Istanbul, will be performed by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, conducted by young Turkish conductor Can Okan, at AKM Türk Telekom Opera Hall on June 7. Aykut Köselerli, Burcu Karadağ and Hakan Göngör, each of whom are virtuosos of their own instruments, will participate in the performance as soloists. In the concert, a part from Say's last work for piano and flute, "Portraits," which consists of eight parts dedicated to a separate Turkish intellectual, will be presented to listeners. One part will commemorate Nejat Ferit Eczacıbaşı, the founder of IKSV.
On one of the most important nights of the festival, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, one of the world's leading orchestras, and Anna Prohaska, the diva of opera scenes, will meet on the same stage. Celebrating its 75th anniversary this season, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin is making a name for itself with the rich dramaturgy of its concert programs, its commitment to contemporary music and its endless exploration of repertoire. The German society’s concert with Prohaska will greet listeners on June 9 at the AKM Türk Telekom Opera Hall.
Gautier Capuçon, one of the most important cellists of our time, will be the guest of the festival together with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra (CSO), conducted by Cemi'i Can Deliorman. In the show, Capuçon will perform the "Cello Concerto" of Edward Elgar while CSO will present "Enstanteneler" ("Symphonic Impressions") by Cemal Reşit Rey, who is known as a "real Istanbul composer," and "From the New World" by Antonin Dvorak. The concert will be held at the AKM Türk Telekom Opera Hall on June 12.
Istanbul Neighborhood Songs
In the program of the festival, a concert that gives place to songs about Istanbul will be presented to listeners at (SSM) Fıstıklı Terrace on June 13. As part of the Istanbul Neighborhood Songs concert, works that describe the districts of Istanbul by composers such as Lavtacı Hristo Agha, Yesari Asım Arsoy, Refik Fersan and Münir Nurettin Selçuk, will be performed by talented soloists Dilek Türkan and İbrahim Suat Erbay. Özata Ayan, Mete Aslan, Volkan Erten, Serdar Bişiren and Devrim Ekiz will accompany the soloists.
Borusan Quartet and Xavier de Maistre, one of the leading harpists of today, will come together at Süreyya Opera House on June 8 for a special concert. In the concert, Alvars, who has devoted his life to playing the harp, will perform works by Claude Debussy, who presents all the depth of 19th-century poetry, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, a passionate composer of the romantic period.
"The guitar hero of classical music" Milos Karadaglic and Austrian clarinet virtuoso Andreas Ottensamer will present another unique concert on June 19 at the St. Esprit Cathedral, which contains the finest details of the baroque style and presents an enchanting atmosphere with its stained glass windows and the incredibly beautiful paintings on its ceiling. The concert program, where guitar and clarinet will meet in a unique way, will include compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Isaac Albeniz and Astor Piazzolla.
The Turkish premiere of "Shanty: Over the Sea," the latest work by composer, conductor and pianist Thomas Ades, will also take place at the 50th Istanbul Music Festival. In this concert, Orchestra Amsterdam Sinfonietta, which specializes in performing music without a conductor and is a regular guest of the most important concert halls and music festivals in Europe, will accompany pianist Valentina Lisitsa and violinist Candida Thompson. The concert will be held on June 14 at the CRR Concert Hall.
Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Foundation Music Stars Chamber Orchestra will perform their first concert on June 15 at AKM Theater Hall. In the concert, pianist Gülsin Onay, Hande Küden, the first violinist from Turkey to be accepted as a full member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gökhan Aybulus, Iris Şentürker, Özgür Ünaldı, Ezgi Göktürk, Elvin Hoxha-Ganiyev, Nil Kocamangil and Melih Kara will accompany the orchestra on the stage.
Different voices, different experiences
Alice Sara Ott, one of the most creative minds of classical music, will be on stage at CRR Concert Hall with her Echoes of Life project, which has the same name as her album, which includes reflections of musical life.
Carrying his music to all corners of the world, Syrian origin clarinet master Kinan Azmeh will be a guest of the festival with his band Cityband on June 17 to leave a deep and equally impressive mark on the 50th anniversary of the festival. In the magical atmosphere of the Tophane-i Amire Culture and Art Center, the ensemble will perform Azmeh's original works that bring together the world of jazz and Arabic music.
Baroque winds
In the concert titled "Faces of Love," Jakub Jozef Orlninki, known as one of the brightest countertenors, will meet with Il Pomo d'Oro orchestra, under the baton of Francesco Corti. The concert, in which the most dramatic and touching arias and different states of love will be carried to the AKM Theater Hall, will be held on June 21.
In the last concert of the festival, "Les Indes galantes" opera by Parisian composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, one of the architects of Baroque music, will combine with the works of Istanbul's court composer, Tanburi Mustafa Çavuş. When the approaches of these two historical figures, who created completely different genres, are merged, a genre that fascinates the listener will emerge. The festival will end on the evening of June 24 with this concert to be performed by the Berlin-based ensemble Musica Sequenza in the impressive atmosphere of the Tophane-i Amire Culture and Art Center.