Clarinet Festival to give breath to Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s largest city is set to get a healthy dose of cheer as the fourth International Clarinet Festival runs for 10 days from Sept. 10 and 20, promising music here, there and everywhere.

“We always say that we give breath to the city. We think that festivals enable people to breathe. This is why we will organize events on the streets, squares and the metro. The festival will be almost everywhere in the city,” said Serkan Çağrı, a clarinet artist and the festival’s art director, said at a press conference in Taksim to launch the festival, whose motto is “Istanbul is breathing.”

“You will hear music suddenly when you travel on a boat or the metro. All these events prove that this is a really comprehensive clarinet festival,” he said.

Çağrı said the first festival was organized in the northern province of Edirne and drew great interest. 

The festival offers different music types and different colors every year, and was not just a clarinet festival but also a music event. 

“We organize a festival offering all types of music but its name includes clarinet. Festivals with the name of any instrument are organized all around the world. It was inevitable that we would organize such a festival in our country which has rich music and talented musicians. It was a dream for me at first, but I guess we did a great job,” he said. 

Çağrı said music should live everywhere and never stop, referring to the negative environment in the country recently due to increasing numbers of clashes between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Stopping music means stopping the sound of life,” he said. 


Respect for the master

The festival will also organize a “Respect for the Master” night for the late singer Barış Manço. The legendary singer’s son Batıkan Manço said they were very excited about the event to be held on Sept. 17. “The festival is a really exciting one, promising very important figures. But it makes me more excited that one of the events is dedicated to my father. You can hear the clarinet in my father’s albums released in the 1970s,” Manço said. 

During the night, unforgettable songs by Barış Manço will be performed by Cansu, Doğukan Manço, Fettah Can, Gökhan Tepe, Hakan Aysev, Keremcem, Mine Mucur, Öykü Gürman, Yavuz Bingöl and Zara. 

The festival will present 22 events at 18 locations with the participation of 142 artists. The opening of the festival will be on Sept. 10 with a painting exhibition, titled “Istanbul is breathing” at the Beyoğlu Municipality Art Gallery on İstiklal Avenue. 

Works by Bedri Karayağmurlar, Hasip Pektaş, Orhan Cebrailoğlu, Şaban Tuncer, Ethem Baymak, Erol Yıldır, Celalettin Tandoğu, Erol Deneç, Julia David, Sinan Yasdıman, Teymur Ağalıoğlu and Mehmet Ali Doğan will be featured in the exhibition.