Gallipoli Symphony to mark Anzac Day

ISTANBUL

This year the Gallipoli Chamber Orchestra will honor the 97th anniversary of Anzac Day on April 27, as part of the three-nation Gallipoli Symphony project. DHA photo

The Gallipoli Chamber Orchestra will honor the 97th anniversary of Anzac Day by playing at the State Museum of Painting and Sculpture in Ankara on April 27 as part of the three-nation Gallipoli Symphony project. Every year for the past six years, movements of the Gallipoli Symphony have been performed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in the northwestern province of Çanakkale to commemorate April 25, Anzac Day. This year the chamber orchestra will also perform in Ankara to celebrate the friendship between Turkey, Australia and New Zealand.

The Gallipoli Symphony is a 10-year project involving the commissioning of 10 leading composers from Turkey, Australia, and New Zealand to tell the narrative of the Gallipoli campaign. Beginning in 2006, a movement has premiered each year at Anzac Cove in the lead-up to the Dawn Service. In 2015 a composite orchestra of Turkish, Australian and New Zealander musicians will perform the complete work before taking the piece on tour in Turkey, Australia and New Zealand. The composers include Demir Demirkan, Kamran İnce, and Omar Faruk Tekbilek from Turkey; Peter Sculthorpe, Graeme Koehne, Elena Kats-Chernin and Andrew Schultz from Australia; and Gareth Farr, Richard Nunns and Ross Harris from New Zealand. The Gallipoli Symphony is being overseen by creative director Des Power and musical director Christopher Latham. “The Gallipoli campaign – the battles around Çanakkale in 1915 – has become the basis of an enduring friendship between countries on opposite sides of the planet,” said Australian Ambassador to Turkey Ian Biggs. “Commemorating the campaign has become central to the national identities of Australia and New Zealand, and this was where [Turkish founder Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk took command of the Turkish defense and later demonstrated his generosity to the families of the fallen.”

“It is a potent act of cultural diplomacy which seeks to give expression to the unique bond of fellowship between Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, a relationship that is notable at this time in history,” Chris Latham, the musical director of the project, said before traveling to Turkey for the concert.