Ankara Music Festival to lighten up April

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

International Ankara Music Festival starts with a traditional opening concert and will continue with Antonio Gades Flamenco Dance Company.

The International Ankara Music Festival’s 30th year celebrations will start on April 4, under the auspices of President Abdullah Gül and with the participation of many representatives from the Presidency Presentation Funds and the Culture and Tourism Ministry. Until the end of the month, Ankara will be hosting many musicians from across the world as part of the festival, and the opening will be held at the Sevda-Cenap and Music Foundation.

This year, the festival will be hosting many artists, choirs and orchestras from countries such as Mongolia, Italy, Norway, Croatia, Austria, Belgium, Costa Rica, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Argentina, Russia, Spain, Ireland, Poland and Portugal.

The Mongolia International Folk Music and Dance Team “Khusugtun,” the Antonio Gades Flamenko Team, the Wanda Golonka Interactive Dance Project, and the Gallipoli Chamber Orchestra, which is made up of musicians from Australia and New Zealand, will all feature at the festival.

The festival starts with the traditional opening concert, in which the Presidential Symphony Orchestra will play pieces by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. The orchestra will feature Alexander Vakoulsky as conductor and Sergey Dogadinon the violin.

The closing of the festival will be made by the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra from Poland and the Lisbon Choir from Portugal. The orchestra will take the stage under chief conductor Işın Metin and with the assistance of the Bilkent University orchestra.

Meanwhile, the festival will also be featuring the Imperial Russian Ballet Company’s staging of the ballet Don Quixote at the Education Ministry on April 20. However, the highlight of this year’s festival program looks set to be Lara Fabian, who will be taking the stage on April 12 at the ATOP Congress Center. Fabian, who is known with her songs sung in French, Italian and English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Greek, and German, has sold over 18 million records worldwide. She is also known for her lyrical soprano voice, which has a range spanning three octaves.

The closing of the event will be held by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra.

This year festival events will also held in the Painting and Sculpture Museum, the German Cultural Center, the Bilkent University Concert Hall, and the Ankara Chamber of Commerce.

The festival program

On April 9 at the Education Ministry, the festival will also be hosting Nazzareno Carusi, the Italian pianist and musician. Carusi is famous for the awards he has won over the years and with his contemporary musical styles. He won the first Prize at the “Réncontres Internationales de Piano 1995” in Paris, at the “NFMC 1993 (duo)” in Buffalo, USA, and at six National Italian Piano Competitions. He was also awarded with the Alexis Weissenberg Award 1999 in Engelberg (Switzerland) by the Bulgarian pianist himself.

Another concert this month will is the MusMA-Music Masters on Air, which consists of Emil Kuyumcuyan, Jessica Poeter, Semi Rosair, and Johannes Weener. The concert will take place at the Bilkent University Concert Hall on April 16.

On April 26, the festival will host the Antonio Gades Flamenco Dance Company, which will also light up the stage at the Education Ministry.