Turkish composer and focus of a symposium

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish composer Buhurizade Mustafa Efendi, known as Itri, and his period will be the focus of the symposium, which will also be attended by ney flute player Kudsi Ergüner as a speaker.

On the 300th anniversary of the death of revered Turkish composer Buhurizade Mustafa Efendi, known as Itri, UNESCO declared 2012 to be the “International Year of Itri,” leading the Istanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts (İKSV) to organize an international symposium in the composers honor.

The symposium titled “Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Itri and His Period” will take place Dec. 3, between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at the Istanbul University. The opening of the symposium will be celebrated with a concert titled “Itri and His Period” performed Dec. 2 with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in attendance.

Opening concert before the symposium

The 17th century composers’ works of different forms, some of which are very rarely rendered, will be performed in the opening concert by the Turkish Music Performance Group of Istanbul University Ottoman Era Music Application and Research Center (OMAR) and the soloists Ahmet Özhan, Münip Utandı and Leonidas Asteris.

Following the opening concert, the symposium will be launched with the support of the Beyoğlu Municipality at the Istanbul University at the Congress Cultural Center in the Beyazıt Campus.

Various disciplines of the 17th century will be explored as part of the symposium, including music, philosophy, history and literature through the consultancy of Conductor of the Turkish Music Performance Group and Director of OMAR Gönül Paçacı. A publication will be prepared in both Turkish and English, consisting of the communiqués to be presented at the symposium.

In the symposium, Professor Mehmet Genç, one of Turkey’s most prominent experts on the Ottoman history, will evaluate the social and economic structure of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th Century while Professor Walter Feldman, who is known for his more than 30 years of research on classical Turkish music, will focus on the characteristics as well as change of musical forms of the era, in which significant figures like Ali Ufki, Evliya Çelebi and Kantemir also lived.

After the Turkish National Commission for UNESCO Board Member Dr. Mehmet Kalpaklı’s evaluation on the literature of the era, musicologist Ersu Pekin will explain Itri and his period in light of a collection of biographies.

The General Secretary of the Parliamentary Union of the Organization of Islamic Conference Member States, Professor Mahmut Erol Kılıç will be addressing the Oriental-Islamic culture of the era while famous musician and ney flute player Kudsi Erguner will explore the differences in interpretations of Ottoman classical music from Itri and his period today. Erguner has been living in France for more than 40 years and is known for his musicological studies which promote Turkish music in the West.

The symposium will also feature a special section in which recordings of “Neva Kar,” the most competent composition of Itri’s Classical Turkish Music repertoire, will be shared with the audience. In this section, various recordings of different renderings of “Neva Kar” will be examined in terms openness-privacy issues by Professor Süleyman Seyfi Öğün, starting from the oldest. Within the same context, Dr. Önder Özkoç from Ankara’s Hacettepe University will evaluate Necil Kazım Akses’ “Scherzo for Large Orchestra on Itrî’s Neva Kâr.”

Attendance to the symposium will be free of charge. For participation, reservation is required by calling 0212 334 08 18.