İzmir Festival turns 30 in May

ISTANBUL

The 30th International İzmir Festival will be organized between May 17 and June 25 this year with 10 concerts, three of which will be open to the public, at venues including the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Arts Center, the İzmir State Theater Konak Stage, the Library of Celsius, the Kültürpark Open Air Theater and the Ephesus Ancient Theater. 

The opening concert of the event will be given by a well-known name in the classical music world, Joshua Bell, on May 17. He will be accompanied by young pianist Sam Haywood. 

The Ege University State Classical Turkish Music Conservatory and the Dokuz Eylül University State Conservatory will be on the same stage for the first time on May 25 with the One Stage project. 

Pianists Ufuk and Bahar Dördüncü will perform works by Debussy and Stravinsky on June 2. 

The 9th National Composition Contest, organized by the İzmir Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSEV) on behalf of its founding president, Dr. Nejat Eczacıbaşı, will announce the results on June 7 as part of the festival. 

The İzmir State Theater will join the festival with British novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz’s “Mindgame.” 

The famous name of flamenco guitar, Paco Pena will meet his fans on June 14. Italian flute virtuoso Massimo Mercelli will take the stage with pianist Ramin Bahrami on June 16. Italian trumpeter and composer Mauro Maur and Canadian pianist Francesca De Clossey will be on the stage on June 20 and 22 respectively. 

The closing concert of the festival will be performed by the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra on June 25 at the Ephesus Ancient Theater. The orchestra will be conducted by Pablo Heras-Casado. 

Tickets for the opening concert are now on sale and the others will be on sale on May 2.