London Philharmonic Orchestra performed in Istanbul 

ISTANBUL

The London Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world’s most renowned orchestras, took stage at the newly reopened Atatürk Cultural Center (AKM) as part of the Beyoğlu Culture Festival organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry for the first time this year. The orchestra performed a special repertoire at the concert with its giant staff of 96 people.

The orchestra appeared before the audience under the direction of Robin Ticciatti and performed Ali Ekber Çiçek’s folk song “Haydar Haydar” as the first piece. 

“Tonight, the London Philharmonic made a performance in line with its reputation. Together with the audience, we tested both the effective performance of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the acoustics of AKM that yielded 100 percent results. In that respect, it was very nice evening,” said Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy at the event. 

Ersoy stated that the orchestra, which also performed a concert at Presidential Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall (CSO) in the capital Ankara last night, appreciated both AKM and CSO’s acoustics, architecture and design. 

“As you know, the London Philharmonic plays in the world’s few concert halls, and in this sense, they said that AKM and CSO are the best concert halls in the world. This also made us happy. Hopefully, from now on, our citizens living in Istanbul and Ankara will meet more with such events, as the pandemic loses its effectiveness. Especially towards the spring, we will continue to bring international brand events and institutions to both Istanbul and Ankara,” he said. 

Reminding that AKM is the last link of the Beyoğlu Cultural Road project, Ersoy said, “It was a project that we have been working on for three years. Now we realize it. First, we completed the investments, we made both restorations and renovations. We should not look at this place as just a building. It is a concept design. It is designed to live 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”