Aegean town welcomes international classical musicians

BODRUM

The D-Marin Turgutreis International Classical Music Festival, which won a prize last year as the “Year’s Best Classical Music Event” at the Donizetti Classical Music awards, will once again revive the Aegean town of Bodrum.

The D-Marin Turgutreis International Classical Music Festival, under the art directorship of Yücel Canyaran, was accepted into the European Festivals Association (EFA) in 2009, and this year it will once more be hosting major names in classical music.

The 9th festival will be held between Aug. 24 and 28, hosting many artists who will be presenting music lovers with a rich repertoire. Over the course of the four days, the festival will present seven concerts.

This year, classical music aficionados will be brought together at sunset and evening concerts at the festival. The first day will host one of the world’s most famous sopranos, Angela Gheorghiu, and tenor Teodor Ilincai. Gheorghiu and Ilincai will present the audience with a program of arias by Verdi to celebrate the bicentennial of his birth. Gheorghiu, who has performed at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera in London, and La Scala in Milan, will be accompanied by the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. Awaited enthusiastically by music lovers every year, the festival will kick off with this unforgettable concert conducted by the Spanish maestro, Ramon Tebar, currently the music director of the Florida Opera.

On the second day of the festival, Turkey’s oldest orchestra, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will accompany a true genius of the violin, Maxim Vengerov. Recognized for many years as the “wizard of the violin,” Maxim Vengerov will perform with the CSO, conducted by Maestro Rengim Gökmen, presenting one of the major works that Tchaikovsky composed in the Swiss Alps, his “Violin Concerto in D Major.” Vengerov is a musician who has created his own unique style and has also captured the world’s attention with his viola recordings. He is also pursuing a career as a conductor. Taking a sabbatical from his solo performances in 2007 due to shoulder surgery, he returned to the stage in 2011. The musician will take the stage in Bodrum for the first time at the D-Marin Turgutreis International Classical Music Festival.

A legend for his matchless fingering technique and golden tones, the German cellist, Daniel Müller-Schott, and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, one of the favorite ensembles of international festivals, will also seek to cast a spell over Bodrum. The Amsterdam Sinfonietta, headed by lead violinist Candida Thompson and made up of 22 musicians who play without a conductor, is one of the most popular groups of international festivals. With the incredible energy they display on stage, the group stands out as one of the most sought-after ensembles in world festivals. Taking the stage for the first time in Bodrum, at D-Marin Turgutreis, the ensemble will crown the performance of Daniel Müller-Schott, and contribute to the spectacular charisma of the musician as he offers an exciting rendition of the recordings that have won such magnificent acclaim.

The closing concert of the festival will present a performance by Fazıl Say, accompanied by the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gürer Aykal. The musician’s Ney Concerto “Hezarfen” and Third Symphony “Universe” will make its premiere in Bodrum, featuring Fazıl Say (piano), Carolina Eyck (Theremin), Burcu Karadağ (Ney) and Aykut Köselerli (percussion instruments) in solo performances, together producing a finale that music lovers will never forget.

Sunset Recitals and Evening Concerts

As the only classical music festival organized at a marina, the festival will be highlighted this year with Sunset Recitals and Evening Concerts, in a series of a total of seven concerts.
 
The Sunset Recitals will be performed free of charge on the second, third and last day of the festival at 7:00 p.m. in the amphitheater inside the marina. The first sunset concert on Aug 25 will feature the Ankara Contemporary Music Ensemble; the sunset concert on Aug. 27 will highlight the Apollon Trio, with flutist Halit Turgay, harpist Merve Kocabeyler and Deniz Yücel on the viola. The final sunset concert will be on Aug. 28, featuring the winner of the Leyla Gencer Opera Singing Contest and the holder of the Doğuş Group Special Community Prize, Fatma Said.

Concert revenues will be donated

The Doğuş Group, which established the Doğuş Children’s Symphony Orchestra, Turkey’s first children’s symphony orchestra, and also took on the restoration project and main sponsorship for the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, has also been executing the “Symphonic Evenings on the Campus” project since 2009. This project aims to take the orchestra to state universities in Anatolian cities where they have never been so far and introduce university students and the local community to classical music.

This year, the revenue to be obtained from the concerts will be donated to the Tohum Autism Foundation and the Bodrum Health Foundation.