Ayvalık Music Festival to welcome audiences

ISTANBUL

Organized by the Ayvalık International Music Academy (AIMA), founded 23 years ago under the leadership of Professor Filiz Ali, the seventh Ayvalık Music Festival will be held in the western town of Ayvalık between Aug. 10 and 19.

The festival, which could not be held last summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is organized with the main support of the Sabancı Foundation and with the significant contributions of the Ayvalık Municipality, featuring six concerts this year.

The festival will open with a concert by the Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (TUGFO), conducted by Conductor Cem Mansur, at the Ayvalık Amphitheater on Aug. 10. Founded in 2007 as the first of its kind in the country by Mansur and consisting of musicians aged 16 and 22, TUGFO gives a series of concerts in Turkey and abroad every summer, after a three-week preparation period under the direction of the best instructors in their fields. TUGFO will perform the works of Rossini, Ravel and Mendelssohn at the opening concert of the festival.

The Anatolian Wind Quintet will perform at Sabancı University Küçükköy Creative Technologies Workshop Stage on Aug. 13. The Anatolian Wind Quintet, which both interprets the classical pieces composed for wind quintet and arranges and sings the works of Turkish composers in a unique style, brings the melodies of Anatolian traditional music culture together with modern western instruments. Consisting of Cem Önertürk (flute), Ufuk Soygürbüz (oboe), Kıvanç Fındıklı (clarinet), Ozan Evruk (bassoon) and Hüseyin Uçar (corn horn), the ensemble will perform the works of Francaix, Danzi, Ligeti, Farkas, Koncovic, Iwanow and Ferit Tüzün.

Another guest of the festival will be the award-winning vocal group A Capella Boğaziçi. Founded in 2002 at Boğaziçi University by five soloists, the band consists of Canan Özgür (soprano), Cansın Hazan Bayrak (alto), Recep Gül (tenor, music director/conductor), Fehmi Cesur Özdemir (baritone, vocal percussion) and Ali Göktürk (bass).

It will meet with music lovers at Cunda Taksiyarhis Church Rahmi M. Koç Museum Garden on Aug. 14. The group will perform Macedonian, Greek, Black Sea, Anatolian, Rumelian, Aegean and West Asian folk songs as well as 12th century Andalusian Nihavend Muvaşşah and 19th century Classical Turkish Music samples at the concert.

The festival will continue with a concert by Cello Paradiso at Alibey Island Cultural Center on Aug. 17, Young Talents concert at the AIMA Haluk Barutçuoğlu House on Aug. 18 and a concert by Flapper Swing Jazz Band at the Ayvalık Cumhuriyet Square on Aug. 19.