Festival to feature Turk folk songs in an operatic style

MERSİN - Anatolia News Agency

Participants in the 1festival competition will sing two folk songs by Musa Eroğlu, set in an operatic style.

The 11th Mersin International Music Festival will take place April 30 - May 18, with the slogan “Mersin folk songs seeking opera style.” Participants in the festival competition will sing two folk songs by Musa Eroğlu, set in an operatic style. 

The festival’s coordinator, Faik Burakgazi, said the festival aimed to bring together opera, ballet and symphonic works, and that this year’s competition would feature operatic settings to two Eroğlu folk songs.

This will be the second year the Mersin festival has included such a competition, which is open to anyone, Burakgazi added. Audiences at this year’s festival will have the chance to hear Turkish folk songs performed in a different format, he said. 

“For the competition we have chosen two songs by Musa Eroğlu,” Burakgazi said. “The candidates will perform the songs ‘Pınar Başı Ben Olayım’ and ‘Aşağıdan Gelende Telli Durnalar’ in a different style,” said Burakgazi.

“These songs have never been sung with piano accompaniment or in a different style before, and have never been heard at a national or international singing competition. Now everyone will have the chance to hear these songs and to hear them performed in a different format. Audiences who follow or attend this festival will have the opportunity to witness a first.” 

A poll of festival audiences will determine the competition’s winner. “The polling night will be organized as a concert night,” Burakgazi said, adding that the winner of the competition will receive a prize of five thousand Turkish Liras.