Şefika Kutluer Festival starts in December

ANKARA

A music festival bearing the name of Turkey’s internationally acclaimed flute artist Şefika Kutluer, known as “Magic Flute,” will be organized from Dec. 3-25 this year in Ankara.

Artists from Britain, Czechia, Russia and the Turkish Republic will join this year’s festival, and some will make their first performance at the festival.

This year, the festival will also open to Anatolia. As in previous years, concerts will be repeated in cities other than Ankara.

The opening of the event will be made on Dec. 3 by Prague Virtuosos Orchestra, accompanied by Kutluer, who will also go to Prague to give a concert with the same orchestra on Dec. 17. The concert will be at Ankara Üniversitesi DTCF Farabi Hall.

On Dec. 11, the festival will continue with harpist Zeyney Öykü’s recital in the same venue.

The European Union Chamber Orchestra will accompany Kutluer on Dec. 20. The orchestra, which consists of artists from various European Union countries’ artists, will also repeat the concert on Dec. 21 in the St. Paul Church in Tarsus. The concert will be the first step for the 10,000-year-old Tarsus to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Kutluer performed a concert many years ago with the same orchestra, and the event drew great interest with the participation of 5,000 people. As a result, she was launched as the permanent soloist of the orchestra.

The festival will continue with a concert by the former Soviet Union artists, who are currently performing at the Bilkent Symphonic Orchestra and working as academics at the Bilkent University. The festival will end with the New Year Eve concert by Kutluer on Dec. 25. She will be accompanied by the Ankara Ensemble in the concert.