Istanbul Music Festival centers on ‘family bonds’
ISTANBUL
The Istanbul Music Festival, organized by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), will be held from May 23 to June 12. The festival, which celebrates its 46th edition, will present a program built around this year’s theme, “Family Bonds.”
The 46th Istanbul Music Festival’s program was announced at a press meeting on Feb. 15.
This year’s program features numerous musician families, including Mischa Maisky together with his children Lily and Sascha, the couple Diana Damrau and Nicolas Testé, the twins Güher and Süher Pekinel, and the sisters Baiba and Lauma Skride.
The festival will open with the festival’s resident orchestra, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of its music director Sascha Goetzel and the young soloist, Yekwon Sunwoo, who will make his Turkey debut.
The festival’s Honorary Award will be presented to the opera director professor Yekta Kara.
The Lifetime Achievement Award of the event will be presented to Maisky, who will give two concerts at the festival on June 2 and June 4.
One of the world’s leading orchestras, Filarmonica della Scala will be at the festival with conductor Daniel Harding and pianist Daniil Trifonov.
Filarmonica della Scala, who visited the Istanbul Music Festival with Daniel Barenboim in 2009 will meet with the Istanbul audience again on May 27.
The inspiring project of mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and Il Pomo d’Oro, “In War & Peace” will meet with audiences for the first time in Turkey at the Hagia Eirene Museum on June 1.
The festival will feature the multidisciplinary project “On the Road” that combines Gülsin Onay’s piano with Murathan Özbek’s camera. The specially prepared repertoire will be accompanied by the images of Özbek’s camera. “On the Road” will have its world premiere on June 11 at the Süreyya Opera House.
Amsterdam Sinfonietta, known for its innovative and interdisciplinary collaborations along with its deep-rooted German music tradition, is one of the few orchestras without a conductor.
The Grand Bazaar, which hosted the Istanbul Music Festival for the first time last year, will resonate this year with some of the best examples of Turkish music, Hebrew lullabies, Syriac hymns, Sephardic songs and folk music from Macedonia, Greece and Armenia.
Music lovers will meet at the Grand Bazaar on June 3 for the Melodies of Istanbul concert.
The concert at the Sirkeci Terminal, entitled “Songs of Istanbul,” will take the audience back to old Istanbul in the first half of the 1900s. Singer Meral Azizoğlu will be accompanied by the Hungarian Gypsy Fire Ensemble on June 6 at Sirkeci Terminal, which will host the festival for the first time.
The Weekend Classics concerts will be held at Babylon, Bomontiada and the Garden of Austrian Culture Forum this year.
In the first concert on May 26, mezzosoprano Senem Demircioğlu and pianist İklim Tamkan will perform the works of the remarkable composers of the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as Turkish folk songs.
At the second concert in Bomontiada on June 2, the Anatolian Wind Quintet will interpret the Anatolian folk songs with a new understanding by bringing together traditional melodies with modern western instruments.
The third of the Weekend Classics concerts will host the Koehne Quartet at the Garden of Austrian Culture Forum on June 9.
Güher and Süher Pekinel, who have made many successful concerts and album collaborations with the English Chamber Orchestra, will come together again with the orchestra for the closing concert of the festival on June 12.
Conducted by Gerard Schwarz, the concert will occur close to the 46th Istanbul Music Festival.
Tickets for the 46th Istanbul Music Festival will be on sale on Feb. 24.