Prestigious jazz festival kicks off in Istanbul
ISTANBUL
The 31st Akbank Jazz Festival kicked off yesterday with an opening ceremony and concert in Turkey’s largest city.
As part of the opening event of the festival, Elif Çağlar and Defjen Daf Ensemble took the stage at the Galataport Istanbul Package Post Office, giving the audience an enjoyable night.
The festival will feature a rich program of exceptional performances by foreign jazz masters as well as Turkish ones.
On the second day of the event, Kamuflaj, one of the locomotive names of the Turkish hip-hop scene since the mid-2000s, and Lara Di Lara, who attracted attention with her albums with the 123 project, will be on stage tonight.
During the festival, Cenk Erdoğan will be accompanied by reed player Muhammed Ceylan and violinist Emre Erdal in the OttoJazz Ensemble, which interprets Turkish music with jazz arrangements.
Ramazan Sesler will take the festival participants on a journey from fine maqams to Thrace-Balkan rhythms with the project “A Clarinet Legend from Father to Son,” accompanied by Anıl Şallıel on the saxophone and Kaan Bıyıkoğlu on the piano.
Also, Güç Başar Gülle’s latest project, “Synthetic Vision,” will be on stage for the first time at the festival.
Selen Gülün, Çağıl Kaya, Özge Fışkın, İlhan Erşahin, Arto Tunçboyacıyan, Barış Demirel, Kamufle & Lara Di Lara, Okay Temiz, Baki Duyarlar, Şennur Dinleyen, Tolga Karaslan, Ediz Hafızoğlu, Ceylan Ertem, Kaan Çelen,
Tolga Bilgin, Tamer Temel, Ercüment Orkut, Volkan Topakoğlu, Oğuz Büyükberber, Can Kozlu, Derya Türkan, Tolga Tüzün, Apostolos Sideris, Deniz Taşar, Yunus Belgin and Atılgan Nalıncıoğlu will be the other guests of this year’s festival.
The festival will also be home to a number of talks, panel discussions and workshops until Oct. 10.
