İş Sanat announces new season

ISTANBUL

Lila Downs. This year the new season starts in November and ends in May 2014. The new season will have 15 classical, six world, five jazz, five local music projects and two dance shows.

Back again for a 14th season with award-winning music and dance shows, as well as world-renowned bands orchestra, İş Sanat has announced its lineup for the beginning of its activities next month.

This year the new season starts in November and ends in May 2014. The new season will have 15 classical, six world, five jazz, five local music projects and two dance shows. There will also be five poetry nights and four new artists’ concert and many children’s shows, while the Kibele Art Gallery will host four main exhibitions, according to Senar Akkuş, the deputy director of Türkiye İş Bank, which is the main sponsor of İş Sanat. The bank has always supported performances, stage shows and concerts and classic music, she said.

Noting that İş Sanat had raised awareness worldwide with its programs, Akkuş said a number of top-name acts had staged their premieres at İş Sanat.

İş Sanat will continue to host many artists and singers as it has become one of the most prestigious platforms for concerts, she said. Despite its focus on concerts, İş Sanat’s artistic horizons are not merely restricted to performances, as there will also be an attempt to raise awareness of plastic arts, she said, noting that İş Sanat’s art galleries in Istanbul and İzmir would continue to serve the art medium, particularly with its current Eşref Ülgen exhibition.

Master names of jazz at İş Sanat

In İş Sanat’s new jazz program for the season, one of fusion’s most virtuosic guitar soloists, John McLaughlin, and classical tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their musical collaboration and friendship with a project named “Remember Shakti,” which is a nostalgic reflection on the band Shakti.

After disbanding in the late 1970s, McLaughlin and Hussain decided to reform the band in 1997 and released the eponymous album which combines elements of traditional Indian music with elements of jazz and echoed the group’s intricate and amazing rhythmic and harmonic breakthroughs. The audience will witness smashing musical dialogues between McLaughlin’s polished guitar lines and powerful improvisations of Hussain who has gained worldwide recognition as an international phenomenon of percussion.

Recognized as one of the most acclaimed singers to enter the music scene in the 1990s, Madeleine Peyroux, is known as one of the best cover artists thanks to the original interpretations she brings to the songs of legends such as Leonard Cohen and The Beatles. Peyroux’s new album, “The Blue Room,” sees the genre-bending singer rework some landmark musical gems. The result is a sophisticated album that rather than just “crossing over,” seamlessly fuses musical styles together to create an entirely new sound. In the concert she will be joined by a Turkish string quartet.

Divas of world music

The first guest of the world music series will be Chambao. Created through a fusion of sensuality, flamenco passion, tangos, rumbas and electronic chill-out, Chambao mixes flamenco fusion and instrumental electronic ambient music which produces a musical concept that is at once both Spanish and cosmopolitan.

With a growing fan base since its debut album, “Flamenco Chill,” in 2002, Chambao has retained its essence with its last self-titled album, a melting pot of southern and Mediterranean music, global in scope and treated with imagination, contemporary roots and extreme sensitivity. The other guests of the world music series will include Teresa Salgueiro, Paloma San Basilio, Ayo, Lila Downs and Estrella Morente.

Hosting the most notable dance companies each season, İş Sanat will present another landmark of modern dance, the Limon Dance Company. The company’s repertoire, which balances classic works with commissions from contemporary choreographers, is of an unparalleled breadth, creating unique experiences for audiences around the world. Witty, accurate, and fresh, all the performers reflect Limon’s rich, strong style and the curving gestures, constantly lending extra value to each note and step. Still the most unique and original American dance company of the day, the Limon Dance Company will perform two separate spectacles of the highest artistic level.

Classical music lovers

Perceived as one of the best places for classical music concerts in Turkey, this season İş Sanat will host the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestras (BİPO). The opening will be made with BİPO, while conductor Sascha Goetzel will share the stage with young pianist Özgür Aydın.

The winner of the renowned ARD International Music Competition in Munich in 1997, Aydın will be accompanied by the philharmonic orchestra under the direction of Goetzel, the collection’s artistic director and principal conductor, who has brought many innovations to the orchestra’s repertoire and vision since 2009.

İş Sanat’s virtuoso series will also host violinist Shlomo Mintz, together with pianist Itamar Golan and cello player Dmitry Yablonsky.

Conductor Paavo Jarvi will meanwhile conduct the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra alongside Hilary Hahn and violinist Baiba Skride, who will be making her first appearance in Turkey.

Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the Bavarian Radio Chamber Orchestra will also come to Istanbul as part of İş Sanat’s 14th season.

Also expected is Valentina Lisitsa, the first “YouTube star” of classical music. More importantly, however, Lisitsa is the first classical artist to have converted her Internet success into a global concert career in the principal venues of Europe, the United States, South America and Asia.