Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Istanbul Music Festival will be held between 6-24 June. The theme of the festival this year is “Istanbul”.
The Istanbul Music Festival, the first festival of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The festival began to be organized under the name of “Istanbul Festival” 50 years ago. The event, which was named Istanbul Music Festival in 1994, has since been hosted many names such as the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, The Philharmonia Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra as well as the world’s leading orchestras such as Ballet and Rundfunkchor Berlin. Announcing the melody of the city for 50 years, the Istanbul Film Festival is meeting with music lovers with the theme of “Istanbul” this year.
The opening concert of the festival will be held on 6 June at 20:00 at the AKM Türk Telekom Opera Stage. In the concert, Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra will accompany with its permanent conductor and artistic director Aziz Shokhakimov and one of today’s star pianists, Kirill Gerstein. On June 7, “Istanbul Symphony” – Bilkent Symphony Orchestra & Fazıl Say will take the stage at 20.00 at AKM Türk Telekom Opera Stage.
As part of the festival gatherings, Kadıköy Süreyya Opera will host the “Festival Meeting: Borusan Quartet & Xavier De Maistre” on the evening of 8 June. Borusan Quartet and harpist Xavier de Maistre; Alvars will meet with music lovers with a concert consisting of works by Debussy and Tchaikovsky.
In the Şerefiye Cistern, one of the city’s fascinating historical venues, Çağlar Fidan, Asineth Fotini Kokkala and Nikos Papageorgiou will present examples of 16th and 17th century Ottoman-Turkish music. The concert titled “Istanbul: Music of the City”, which these three names have specially designed for the Istanbul Film Festival, will be performed with compositions by artists from different ethnic origins and religions, born in imperial Istanbul. In the concert to be held on Friday, June 10, the nostalgic melodies of Ottoman Istanbul, ranging from coffee houses to recreation areas, will fill the Şerefiye Cistern.
Years later, in addition to the concerts to be held at AKM again, free public concerts will be given in Fenerbahçe Park and Yıldız Park. You can find out the detailed program of the festival, which will host over 65 artists and orchestras in 12 different venues until June 24, on the IKSV website. We end the article by listening to Nejat Eczacıbaşı’s speech at the opening of the festival 50 years ago: “Our wish is that such shows will serve our country’s culture more and more, and our hope is that future generations will bring this beginning to great success.”
