Home of Rumi hosts Mystic Music Festival

KONYA - Anatolia News Agency

Indian Purna Das Baul Samat is one of the best renowned artists to attend the Konya International Mystic Music Fest.

The ninth-annual Konya International Mystic Music Festival, held in the central Anatolian province of Konya, will celebrate the 805th anniversary of the birth of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, known as Mevlana, with performances from the world’s best mystic musicians, from Iran, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, the Czech Republic, Mauritania, China, Georgia, India and Turkey.

The event will take place Sept. 22 through 30, with free concerts at Konya Metropolitan Municipality’s Mevlana Culture Center.

Mystic musicians

The most important interpreter of Iranian Khorasan music, Sima Bina; Grammy winner Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares; Afghanistan’s Ghulam Hussain; the Czech Republic’s Schola Gregoriana Pragensis; Mauritania’s Coumbane Mint El Warakane; Sanubar, form China; Georgia’s Aznash; Purna Das Baul Samrat of India; and the Konya Sufi Music Band are among the artists and bands participating in the festival.

The festival has taken place every year since 1994, Konya Province’s Culture and Tourism Director Mustafa Çıpan said, speaking to Anatolia news agency. “The first festival took place in February, but subsequent years we scheduled it to coincide with the birthday of Rumi. The festival is among the world’s most important mystic music events. The groups performing in the festival were chosen from among 200 groups. It is a very successful event.”

The field of mystic music is wide, because each faith has a different understanding of mystic music, said the festival’s art director, Dr. Timuçin Çevikoğlu. India’s Purna Das is one of the most important performers in the festival. He has so far given hundreds of concerts in 127 countries, Çevikoğlu said.