Holiday resort to become classical music stage

ISTANBUL

The festival will host classical musicians from Turkey and the world during four-day concerts.

Music lovers will have the chance to listen to music by local and foreign musicians at sunset and give to a good cause at the eighth edition of the D-Marin Turgutreis International Classical Music Festival, which will be held on July 14, 15, 17 and 18 this year.

Speaking to Anatolia news agency, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra director Tahsin Arslan said the festival was organized to develop the country’s classical music scene and bring together domestic and foreign tourists in Bodrum, one of Turkey’s most popular tourism destinations.

All of the festival’s earnings will be donated to the Tohum Autism Foundation and the Bodrum Health Foundation.

At the opening of the festival the Presidential Symphony Orchestra will perform with the soloist tenor Jose Carreras under the baton of chef David Gimenes, Arslan said. Turkish soprano singer Simge Büyükedes, who lives abroad, will also accompany the orchestra.

The art director of the festival is Yücel Canyaran, said Arslan, adding that the event would host the leading figures of classical music. “The repertoire of the festival is very rich and it will welcome lots of musicians in Bodrum,” he said.

Sunset and night concerts

The festival will host seven events during the “sunset recitals” and “night concerts” series, with recitals able to viewed free of charge on the second, third and last day of the festival at the amphitheater in marina at 7 p.m.

Pianist Gülru Ensari and German cellist Mirijam Contzen will take the stage during the first sunset concert, Arslan said. “In the second recital, which will be held for the memory of late Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer, the second runner-up of the 2012 Leyla Gencer Voice Competition, Anna Lapkovskaja will be on the stage and she will be accompanied by pianist Tamas Kery. Violinist Sevil Ulucan and Azerbaijani pianist Gülnare Şekinskaya will make the world premiere of composer Oğuzhan Balcı’s ‘Gün Batımı’ (Sunset).”

It will be a different experience to view the concert given by viola artist Yuri Bashmet with chamber orchestra soloists in Bodrum, Arslan said. “The virtuoso Bashmet and violinist Alena Baeva, who will be the chef and soloist of the second night concert at the festival, will perform classical music pieces from Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Paganini and others. On the third night of the festival, the Doğuş Children’s Symphony Orchestra will accompany flamenco artist and guitarist Jose Maria Galardo Del Rey and Antonio Marquez Dance Company. The company, founded by Gallardo Del Rey and Antonio Marquez will blow the winds of flamenco in Bodrum.”

In the closing concert of the festival, pianist and composer Fazıl Say will play his “Mesopotamia Symphony” with Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gürer Aykal. “The orchestra will accompany the artist in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Concerto No:1.’ Then the Bodrum premiere of Mesopotamia Symphony will be made. Theremin Carolina Eyck (theremin), Bülent Evcil (bas flute) and Çağatay Akyol (bas block flute) will be on the stage as the soloists of the concert. It will be an amazing concert,” he said.

About the festival

The D-Marin Turgutreis International Classical Music Festival was voted the “Classical Music Event of the Year” by a panel of judges consisting of 25 names setting the course of the music world and by the public in the 2012 Donizetti Classical Music Awards organized by Andante.

The festival, which reached an audience of 7,000 in its first year, 12,000 in its second, 13,500 in its third, and 14,100 in its fourth, was admitted to the European Festivals Association (EFA) in its fifth year when it drew 15,000 people. Interest in the festival kept growing with an audience of 17,250 in its sixth year. In its seventh year the festival audience reached 17,500 people.