Istanbul Jazz Festival program announced
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
IKSV photo
The 19th Istanbul Jazz Festival will again bring the stars of jazz to Istanbul in July with 50 concerts and more than 300 local and international artists.The festival will expand across the city this year with more than 20 different venues. While still including concerts at classic venues such as the Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theatre, the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Istanbul Modern, Salon İKSV and the Marmara Esma Sultan, as well as santralistanbul, one last year’s favorite venues, the Haliç Congress Center and Sabancı University’s Sakıp Sabancı Museum will be used as jazz festival venues for the first time.
The program for the 19th Istanbul Jazz Festival was announced at a press conference held at SALT Galata. Speaking at the conference, İKSV Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı said: “The festival in its 19th year has undertaken a mission that extends beyond hosting significant representatives of contemporary music from all over the world in Istanbul. The festival brings artists from different traditions and different countries together for concerts in which they will perform original music, and it also supports the improvement of young jazz musicians.”
The Istanbul Project
This year’s festival also includes concerts designed to help audiences discover new horizons in jazz, and events that will carry the excitement of the music out into the streets. For example, Marcus Miller, well-known to followers of the Istanbul Jazz Festival, has prepared a new work for the festival called “The Istanbul Project,” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of İKSV, and will perform it with musicians from Turkey. “We hope that the piece, which will have its debut in the festival, will be performed in many other countries. We believe that it will be a significant step toward our foundation’s goal of contributing to world culture and art,” Eczacıbaşı said of the Miller project.
Garanti Bank president and CEO Ergun Özen also spoke at the press conference; Garanti will sponsor the festival for the 15th time this year. Özen said: “İKSV, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, has made art and culture available for all of Istanbul and Turkey through the festivals and events it organizes. İKSV organizes significant events that make our city a worldwide cultural and artistic center. We have worked on many projects together so far, and we are happy to have reached the 15th anniversary of our cooperation with İKSV on the Istanbul Jazz Festival. … We support jazz in Turkey with our ‘Garanti Jazz Green’ program. Within this framework, our cooperation with İKSV has been growing in strength for 15 years.”
Musicians in this years festival
The 19th Istanbul Jazz Festival will begin with an opening ceremony on July 3 at The Marmara Esma Sultan. Tickets for the Istanbul Jazz Festival will be on sale as of Saturday April 28 at 10:00 a.m., through Biletix sales channels and at İKSV.
Pelin Opcin, director of the Istanbul Jazz Festival, provided more information with regard to the festival program at the press conference. This year musicians such as Esperanza Spalding, Magnus Öström, Stefon Harris, David Sanchez and Nicholas Payton, and Morrisey will perform as part of the festival. Concerts from Erik Truffaz, İlhan Erşahin and Joaquin “Joe” Claussell are expected to be the highlights. Some of long-awaited musicians participating in the festival this year are Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, and Jack Dejohnette. Erykah Badu will also perform a highly anticipated concert.
Various concerts within the festival will be held with the support of the embassies, consulates, or cultural centers of the United States, Germany, Austria and Finland, as well as Dore Müzik (Yamaha). Concerts by Dutch artists will be held with the support of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Fonds Podium Kunsten within the scope of the ongoing celebration of the 400th Anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and Turkey. The Tünel Feast will be held with the support of Beyoğlu Municipality. The festival is also supported by Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, and Beyoğlu Municipality. Neşet Ruacan, a musician with known for his masterful guitar technique, and who has worked to promote Turkish jazz, will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Istanbul Jazz Festival this year. He will be presented with the award at the opening ceremony.
