Pianist and composer Anjelika Akbar has an important place in classical and Turkish music. Inspired by many music cultures, she is a very productive artist. Her albums "Bach a L'Oriental," "Mutlu Aşk Şarkıları" (Happy Love songs) and "İçimdeki Türkiyem" (My Turkey Inside Me) and book of the same name show this sincere love. She is a musician who feeds on culture, history, nature and several art forms. Having more than 500 compositions and 14 albums, she also composes music for movies and exhibitions and has written three books and many articles. Akbar is an artist who touches every aspect of life. She is the first Turkish musician to enter the classical music catalogue of Sony Classical International with her album "Vivaldi-Four Seasons." But the world famous pianist does not withdraw to an ivory tower, as she makes music anywhere.

"Yol Ayrımı," directed by Yavuz Turgul, came out Nov. 10 in Istanbul. Actor Şener Şen, who stars in the lead role, is a boss who dedicates his life to his textile empire and decides to choose a different life after a serious traffic accident. Akbar, who composed and played the music for the movie, talked to Daily Sabah about her film score production, art life and love for Turkey.

Akbar's touch gives the film a special influence. Turgul wanted her to compose the music for the movie. It was the first time Turgul has worked with a classical musician. Akbar said that she was very impressed, while he told the story of the movie. Akbar's success derives from the fact that she studied film music in particular and she can bond words and music together. "I pay attention to the inner worlds of the characters in the movie. I first enter into their sentimental world and start to live inside in this world like actors do. But I position myself in every character at the same time," she said.

"Every glance, breath, word and quietness are clues for me. I internalize the scene and editing process so I commune with the actors without their knowledge. I become like their relative. It's as if they are translated in musical language," she said.

A genius growing with music

Born in Kazakhstan to a musician mother and musician-philosopher father Stanislav Konstantinovich Timchenko, Akbar has been playing music since her early childhood. Having absolute pitch, she could read music by the time she was two-and-a-half years old: "Our home was always full of music. It's a big chance to see live performances while nursing. My mother and father opened my way. The first object that I met in my life wasn't a toy, it was a piano."

Akbar was admitted to a school for gifted children at the age of four-and-a-half, drawing the interest of those at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Moscow. She started studying at the Tashkent Uspenski branch of the conservatory where child prodigies study. Akbar was awarded as Best Young Composer by the Soviet Union Composers Committee. She studied her compositions and orchestra-conducting master's and doctoral degrees in Turkey. Akbar has won numerous prizes, including the USSR Ethnic Music Award and the 4th Nejat Eczacıbaşı National Composition Contest Award.

She came to Turkey for a UNESCO project that she and her first husband were participating in. After giving birth to her son in Istanbul, they decided to stay, as Akbar fell in love with Turkey and Turkish culture. The collapse of the Soviet Union was also a good pretext for staying. She is now a Turkish citizen.

Where the world ends, music begins

Akbar's music is like a flower absorbing water and other nutrients, giving oxygen and continuing to blossom. That is why the multiculturalism in Akbar's music is more than a synthesis that might occasionally miss harmonious unity.

Akbar tells how she associates music with literature: "One is voice, the other is word. Both of them are vibration and frequency. Each one completes, revokes and enriches the other. It is said that where the word end, music begins. So when words are incomplete, music fills the emptiness and carries them to the hearth."

Different dimension with Sufi music

She started to read at four years old. Tales were her first literary friend. And then fantasy and science fiction novels got her attraction. Akbar was a very special girl who wondered, interrogated and imagined, and as such, she began to read philosophy and spiritual books. That is why one of the sources of inspiration for her is Sufi music. She performed the hymn "Güldür Gül" (A Rose Is Rose) whose lyrics come from 14th century Azerbaijani or Turkmen Sufi poet Imadaddin Nasimi and is dedicated to the Prophet Mohammad. As a world famous composer with a classical background, her performance was extraordinary.

One of her books is for children and called "Uçan Köpek Baaşa" (Baasha the Flying Dog). She also gathered favorite childhood songs for the album "Likafoni." She gives good news to her fans: "I have already written two books waiting to be published."

Musician who embraces the world

She says nature is one of her biggest sources of inspiration. Akbar uses all the possibilities of meeting nature with music like her compositions "Yakamoz Prelude," "Rain Waltz," "Rose Mystery," "Desert Rose" and others. "The voice of wind, the sound of thunder and quietness when it snows ... I like the voice of laughter, but especially the voice of children," she said. Akbar is open to other kinds of music, too, such as Indian and Black Sea music. Hymns also have a special place for her. During her childhood, Ivan Ayvazovski, Nicholas Roerich and Claude Monet were artists that impressed her a lot. That is why she became the musical art director of the Pitoresk Istanbul exhibition, which displayed 19th century paintings. The Pitoresk Istanbul exhibition was presented in Los Angeles, and the classical exhibition format of the project was at the Maritime Museum in Istanbul for nine months in 2016.

Turkey welcomed with open arms

She wrote "İçimdeki Türkiyem" (My Turkey Inside Me) to show her love for Turkey. "The clearest sentiment about Turkey I lived is the feeling of welcoming with open arms," she said. As for Turkish people, she said: "It is impossible to describe them with a few words. But the reason why I love Turkey is of course the people," Turkish has a special meaning for her, too. She also says that Turkish is one of the most comfortable languages for its lyricalness.

Russia and Turkey are on a right path

Akbar says she is very happy with the improving relations and cooperation between Russia and Turkey. She continues her projects to contribute to cultural relations between the two countries. Akbar is a partner of ONE'S Media that realized an exhibition called "The Istanbul of Aivazovsky" with the Boyut Publishing Group. Video-graphic performances of the exhibition were in Istanbul, New York, Los Angeles, Yerevan and Feodosia in Crimea where Aivazovsky was born. The exhibition opened its doors in Moscow on Dec. 4. Akbar composed the music for the exhibition and was the director and musical art director for the project.

She has a good recommendation for young artists: "The subject of what you do should be the art of oneself. The 'I' must be drawn to the back."