Tuluyhan Uğurlu to play for his father

Internationally known Turkish piano virtuoso Tuluyhan Uğurlu will give a concert Nov. 22 at the Beyazıt State Library dedicated to his father, Halim Uğurlu, who died seven years ago.

The concert is titled “Time in Beyazıt.”

Uğurlu will perform two concerts on the same day, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., in the historical library, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The concert will be accompanied by footage showing fall in Istanbul, the Beyazıt area and the historic peninsula.

The pianist will be joined by Murat Toraman on pipe, Doğukan Çokşeker on viola, Umur Sel on contrabass and Gürkan Özkan on percussion. Audience members will be offered tea and simit in accordance with an old tradition.

Uğurlu composed “Time in Beyazıt” in 2003 at the request of the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry. He made an album including this work and performed its gala concert among the books at the entrance of the Beyazıt State Library the same year.

Sunday’s concert will begin with the following words that Uğurlu has written for his father: “I knew my father as a poet. While I was working with piano, he was a big poet who existed in the world of art with his poems.… My father was a great poet. But today he is just my father. Let his poems be a gift to his country.”

Who was Halim Uğurlu?

Halim Uğurlu was born in 1926 in the Taşkent district of the central Anatolian province of Konya. A graduate of the Istanbul University faculty of literature, Uğurlu was involved with poets and literature since childhood. His first poem was published in 1946.

His poems have been published in magazines including Edebiyat Dünyası, Papirüs, Türk Dili, Soyut, Türk Basın Birliği, Son Çağ, Güney and Yansıma. The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT, awarded him a prize in the field of poetry in 1970, the year he died.

Uğurlu’s poetry books include “Asya Baharı,” “Değişim,” “Gökağrı,” “Türk’e Destan,” “Zamanların Dili,” “Kan Su Kesince,” “Kıyamet Çiçekleri” and “Sözcüklerde Uyanmak.”