Politicians, academics gather at Itrî year events

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

EU Minister Egemen Bağış (L), Bülent Eczacubaşı, IKSV Chairman, Istanbul University Rector Yunus Söylet (R) attend concert.

The Istanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts (IKSV) is organizing a concert and international symposium on Itrî, as UNESCO has declared 2012 “International Itrî Year” on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the death of the great Turkish composer Buhûrîzâde Mustafa Efendi (Itri).

As part of the celebrations, a concert titled “Itri and His Period” was performed on Dec. 2 at the Istanbul University Congress Cultural Center. In the first part of the concert, the 17th century composer’s works in many different forms were performed by the Turkish Music Performance Group of Istanbul University’s Ottoman Era Music Application and Research Center (OMAR), led by Gönül Paçacı. The soloists Yorgo Saris, Münip Utandı and Ahmet Özhan performed pieces from the period in the second part of the concert, which was streamed live on national television station TRT Müzik.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was unable to attend the event due to a last minute change in his program, so EU Minister Egemen Bağış attended the concert in his stead.

At the ceremony before the concert, IKSV Chairman Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Istanbul University Rector Prof. Dr. Yunus Söylet and Bağış delivered speeches. Following the speeches, Eczacıbaşı and Söylet presented appreciation plaques to Bağış to be forwarded to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Beyoglu Mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan also attended the concert.