Wednesday, March 3, 2010

5:37 PM

A Story of The City: Constantinople Istanbul

Date : 18.06.2010 21:00:00
Venue : Cemil Topuzlu Açıkhava Sahnesi
OUTSTANDING MUSICOLOGISTS AND MUSICANS OF AMERICA ARE PREPARING FOR THE PROJECT “ A STORY OF THE CITY, CONSTANTINOPLE, ISTANBUL “ .


THE CONCERT EVENT THAT WILL BE SUPPORTED BY A MULTIMEDIA SHOW WILL BE HELD AT HARBIYE CEMILTOPUZLU OPEN – AIR THEATRE ON 18 TH. JULY 2010 .

"A story of the city, Constantinople, Istanbul" is an original music project which is realized by taking into consideration basic criteria prescribed by the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency. Taking the motto “Music is the witness of history” as its main theme, “A Story of the City, Constantinople – Istanbul” concert is about the cross-cultural interactions among civilizations and turning points, undergone by Istanbul through the course of its relations with European civilizations.

In the event, categorical schools (genres such as imperial, military, ethnic, religious music and Eastern and Arabic sounds, which the city imported from the Anatolian immigrants) will be presented to the
audience in a chronological order and in their original sounds.

Head of the Musicology-Music History Department at America's first Conservatory, world-famous New England Conservatory and; the founder and Chairman of the "Intercultural Institute" Prof. Dr. Robert Labaree regained the Middle Eastern harp called "Cheng” which Ottoman-Turkish music tradition has lost about 350 years ago. Prof. Labaree modified and improved the instrument by using “kanun” latches, thus it gets to fit to the current performance standards of Turkish music. Audience will get to chance to see the instrument “cheng” and enjoy the “cheng” performance by Labaree in this event.


“ A STORY OF THE CITY, CONSTANTINOPLE, ISTANBUL “

Musical Director : Dr. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol
Diploma, Berklee College Of Music, Jazz Composition and Film Scoring
Masters Degree, New England Conservatory, Jazz Composition
Doktora, New England Conservatory, Composition

Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol resides in Boston and is the Founder President of Dünya Foundation ( Boston, USA ) and is a faculty member in Emerson College.

CD’ s : For You The World, For Us The Roses, The Language of the Birds
Psalms of Ali Ufki, The Tulip and the Sword, Music Of Cyrprus, Come See What Love Has Done To Me
DVD ‘ s : Wisdom and Turkish Humor
Albums : With Audiofact, Black Spot, Asitane

Dr. Sanlıkol is doing ecletic studies about Byzantine psalms, Separdic Jewesh Songs, Armenian Composers, Classical Turkish Music and Sufistic Music with musicians who come from those diciplines.

Ensembles :Schola Cantorum ( Director: Nektarios Antoniou ), Ensemble
Trinitas ( Director : Thomas Zajac ), The New England Drum and Winds Mehterhane, Dünya İnce Saz Ensemble, Dünya Anatolian Folk Ensemble, Dünya Fasıl Ensemble, Dünya Arabesk Ensemble, Ney Artist Ercan Irmak. 36 Musicians.

Presentation :

The city of Istanbul has been the capital of two long-lasting empires—for its first ten centuries Roman (Byzantine) and, beginning in 1453, for the next five centuries Ottoman Turkish. With the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, the city lost its status as a capital, though it remains the cultural centerpiece of a modern Turkish republic. Memories of the city’s past—often different, frequently overlapping, sometimes conflicting—persist in the minds and in the music of its current inhabitants, most of them with deep ties to different regions, cultures and histories of the Middle East, East, Europe and the Balkans. They have inherited the memories of fifteen centuries of merchants and soldiers from many regions, of Ottoman Arabs, Turks, Armenians, Slavs, Kurds and Greeks, of Jews exiled from Spain, and of European diplomats, soldiers and missionaries. To the nostalgic yearning for the imperial glory of the past has been added a layer of memories of more recent changes in the city’s self-image: the slow decline and dismemberment of the Ottoman empire during the 19th century, the shift of political power to Ankara in the 1920s and the continued relocation to Istanbul of large numbers of people from the countryside of eastern and central Anatolia.

The many layers of communal memory in this program proceed through Greek Orthodox music, secular Greek music, Crusader songs, music of the Ottoman ceremonial and military ensembles, Ottoman court music, Sufi ceremonial music, Turkish folk music, Sephardic Jewish songs, urban music of the Armenians and Turks, and finally contemporary urban popular music full of longing and protest. On its own, each piece may communicate celebration, love, devotion or military might, but taken together, the mood of melancholy is unmistakable, which by now has been permanently woven into the fabric of this thriving cosmopolitan city.

PROLOG

Byzantium Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol (d. 1974)
Part I: KONSTANTiNiYYE Byzantine Music

Soson Kyrie ton laon sou
Anonim
Kyrie ekekraksa pros se eisakouson mou (Psalm 140, 1-3)
Petros Peloponesios (c. 1730-1778), düzenleme Protopsaltis Thrasivoulos Stanitsas (1910-1987)

The Byzantine Palace

Fos ilaron
Ioannis Sakellarides (1853-1938)
Kontakion
Romanos the Melodist (6. yy.)

Crusaders

Redit etas aurea
12. yy. conductus
A vous amant, plus qu’a nul autre gent
Châtelain de Coucy (c. 1165-1203)
Li nouviauz tanz et mais et violette
Chatelain de Coucy
Chanterai pour mon courage
Guiot de Dijon (13. yy.)

The 14th and the 15th Centuries

Akritis kastro ehtise
Anonymous
Mandilatos
Anonymous
Kyrie soson tous euseveis
Anonymous
Dynamis, trisagion
Xenos Koronis (14. yy.)
Kratima
Xenos Koronis
Mon stilte ghrama stin Frankia
Anonymous
Kyrie eleison
Petros Peloponesios (c. 1730-1778)
Lamentatio Sanctae Matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae
Guillaume Du Fay (1397-1474)
Çeng-i harbi
Anonymous, transkripsiyon: Ali Ufki (c.1610-1675)


Part II: İSTANBUL

The Arrival of the Turks: Yörükler, Bektaşiler

Dirmilcik’ten gelir
Anonymous
Ardıç arasında biten naneler
Anonymous
Uşşak nefes
Music: Anonymous, Text: Hacı Bayram Veli (1352-1430)

The Ottoman Palace

Çeng taksim (improvisation)
Buselik Aşiran peşrev
Anonymous, transcribed by Ali Ufki
Buselik Aşiran beste
Zaharya (18th c.)

Greeks, Armenians and Jews

Bu gece çamlarda kalsak ne olur/Apopse
Artaki Candan (1885-1948)
Turkish text: Avram Naum (20. yy.), Greek text: Dimitris Semsis ve Agapios Tomboulis (20. yy.)
Kara kız
Dramalı Hasan Hasgüler (1896-1984)
San pas sta ksena
Anonymous
La rosa enfloresse
Anonymous

Mevleviler

Ney taksim
Yeheme levavi
Music: Neyzen Yusuf Paşa (1820-1884)
Salat-ı ümmiye
Buhurizade Itri (1640?-1711)
Niyaz ayini
Music from the Segah Ayin of Buhurizade Itri, Müstear Ayin by Zekaizade Hafız Ahmet Irsoy (1869-1943) and an anonymous yürük semai

Fasıl

Segah şarkı
Text: Namık Kemal (1840-1888), Music: Hacı Arif Bey (1831-1885)
Suznak saz semaisi
Kemençeci Nikolaki Efendi (ö. 1915)

EPILOGUE

Dergah senden (vocal improvisation)
Text: Anonymous
Felekten beter vurdu
Orhan Gencebay (d.1944)

The owner of the project keeps the right to make partial changes in the program.

Ticket Prices:
Category 1: 185,00 TL
Category 2: 165,00 TL
Category 3: 112,00 TL
Category 4: 100,00 TL
Category 5: 78,00 TL
Category 6: 67,00 TL
Category 7: 56,00 TL
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5:27 PM

The Cranberries, 22 JULY İSTANBUL

Irish indie rock band The Cranberries will perform two concerts in Istanbul and Çeşme in July 2010.

The group was one of the most successful rock acts of the '90s and sold over 14.5 million albums in the United States alone. The band has achieved four top 20 albums on the Billboard 200 chart (Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?; No Need To Argue; To the Faithful Departed and Bury the Hatchet) and eight top 20 singles on the Modern Rock Tracks chart ("Linger", "Dreams", "Zombie", "Ode to My Family", "Ridiculous Thoughts", "Salvation", "Free To Decide" and "Promises").
Since 2004 Dolores O'Riordan has been collaborating on a number of musical projects, before launching her solo career with the album Are You Listening? in 2007.

On August 25, 2009 in anticipation of the release of Dolores' second solo album, No Baggage, Dolores O'Riordan announced that the Cranberries would be reuniting for a North American tour to begin in November 2009, followed by dates in Europe in early 2010. O'Riordan indicated that the band would be playing songs from her solo albums and a lot of The Cranberries classic hits as well as some new group compositions.

Ticket prices:
Front Stage: 165,00 TL
Normal: 78,00 TL


The Cranberries
date : 22.07.2010 20:00:00
venue : Küçükçiftlik Park
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5:21 PM

Lord of The Dance

Michael Flatley is committed to his art and to giving his audiences "The World's Greatest Dance Show" on June 11-12-13 2010 in Istanbul by UNILIFE Organization.
Irish dance lovers and music fans alike will get a chance to experience the engaging, rhythmic adventure that has helped catapult Celtic dance mania and Irish dancing into the global spotlight. No wonder Lord of the Dance has jettisoned its ticket sales to more than $800 million worldwide. During its rewarding five-year residency in Las Vegas, an estimated two million people danced along in their seats.

Fresh off the dancing heels of its 12th anniversary tour, Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance has announced tour dates for the ensuing year, with more than 115 cities in 10 different Countries around the world included in the journey.

Michael Flatley, creator and director of this award-winning international dance phenomenon, has proven his vision that hearts and minds, united through music and dance, cross all traditional boundaries. His Lord of the Dance continues to shatter box office records all over the world, leaving audiences breathless and clamoring for more.

Described by the New York Post as "fascinating, rewarding and above all, entertaining," and by the Los Angeles Times as "a showpiece extravaganza," Lord of the Dance is a magical adventure of sight and sound that transports its audience to a mythical time and place, lifting the spirits and capturing the hearts of all who experience it. “Thrilled audiences and standing ovations are frequent reactions worldwide which speak directly to the quality of dancers who I have had the privilege to bring to the stage,” Flatley says.

The dancers’ average age is 24, and each one has achieved individual recognition as a national dance champion. “Each one is a superstar,” Flatley adds.
More than 50 million people worldwide have seen Lord of the Dance - the international Irish dancing extravaganza that has performed sold out shows in theaters, arenas and stadiums in over 67 countries. From the moment the lights go down to the last encore, audiences are spellbound by a masterfully orchestrated combination of precision dancing, flawless lighting and an intricately composed score, complimented by chiseled dancers in fantastic costumes.
Based on Irish folklore, this classic tale of Good vs. Evil, expressed through the universal language of dance, has catapulted Irish dance to a new dimension and unprecedented worldwide acclaim. As the story unfolds, the Little Spirit travels through time to help the Lord of the Dance protect his people from the challenge of Don Dorcha, the Dark Lord. Battle lines are drawn, passions ignite and a love story fueled by the dramatic leaps and turns of dancers’ bodies begins to build against a backdrop of Celtic rhythm.

The action is played out over 21 scenes on a grand scale of award-winning dancing, dramatic music, colorful and exquisite costumes and state-of-the-art staging, lighting and pyrotechnic effects.Flatley, who originated the role of the Lord, is the company’s Artistic Director, a position he has held since the troupe’s stunning 1996 debut in Dublin. Twelve years later, his influence continues to resonate throughout every aspect of the production.

Ticket Prices:
Category 1: 165,00 TL
Category 2: 122,00 TL
Category 3: 100,00 TL
Category 4: 78,00 TL

*Doors open at 20:00pm.
*Show starts at 21:00pm.
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5:11 PM

2010 Formula 1™ Turkish Grand Prix

2010 Formula 1™ Turkish Grand Prix 28-29-30 May 2010


2010 Formula 1™ Turkish Grand Prix tickets are now on sale!

F1 Tickets have never been this cheap in Turkey's Grand Prix history!

The Legend is coming back!
The most successful driver in motor racing history Michael Schumacher, returns to race with Mercedes in Formula One after three seasons in retirement. Ferrari’s 2000-2004 champion Schumacher won seven world championships in a career spanning 16 years and 249 races.

The teams and drivers are:
Hamilton and Button - McLauren
Schumacher and Rosberg - Mercedes GP
Massa and Alonso - Ferrari
Vettel and Webber - Red-Bull
Click For more details
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Monday, March 1, 2010

4:55 PM

AHIRKAPI HIDRELLEZ TRADITIONAL SPRING FESTIVAL

WHAT IS "HIDRELLEZ"?

It is said that whatever you wish for on that night, will come true!

"Hıdrellez", is one of the seasonal festivals of all Turkish world which is celebrated as the first day of the "early summer". It is also "day of Hızır", the day on which prophets Hızır and Ilyas met with each other on earth. The words Hızır and İlyas have since fused together pronounced as Hıdrellez. Hıdrellez Day falls on May 5-6. There are various theories about the origin of Hızır and Hıdrellez. Various ceremonies and rituals have been performed for various gods with the arrival of spring or summer in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran, Greece and in fact all eastern Mediterranean countries since ancient times. One widespread belief suggests that Hızır is a prophet who has attained immortality by drinking the water of life (ab-ı hayat), and who has reached God, and wanders around among people from time to time, especially in the spring, and helps people in difficulty and distributes plenty and health. The identity of Hızır, the place and the time he lived in are not certain. Hızır is the symbol of spring, and the new life which emerges with it. In Turkey, where belief in Hızır is widespread, the characteristics attributed to him are as follows:

• Hızır rushes to the aid of people in difficulty and grants peoples’ wishes.
• He always helps well-meaning, benevolent people.
• He brings plenty and wealth wherever he stops.
• He brings remedies to those who are troubled and health to the sick.
• He helps plants to grow, animals to reproduce, and human beings to grow strong
• He helps improve peoples’ fortune.
• He is the symbol of good omens.
• He has the God-given power of working miracles.

Hıdrellez Festival, which is still celebrated with grand ceremonies in Anatolia, has been celebrated since ancient times. Although it is celebrated under different names and in different times, it is possible to see the motifs of Hıdrellez in many places. The arrival of spring and awakening of nature have been perceived by mankind as a phenomenon to be celebrated. In fact, Hıdrellez, as a spring festival, has a universal character.

"The Hıdrellez at Ahırkapı" Rituals
The Armada Hotel has first started to organize a semi-contemporary “Hidrellez” at Ahırkapı streets and invited all of Istanbul’s citizens to come and participate in 1997. For the last couple of years “The Hıdrellez at Ahırkapı Streets” event has been turned to a collective civil community activity. Each year the activities begin on Ahirkapi Street and spread to the adjacent streets on 5th of May. Towards midnight the traditional fires will be jumped over and the wishes will be attached on the traditional Nahils. -The individual wishes are written on a piece of paper and attached on the Nahil´s that you will find in front of the Armada Garage.-Nahil is a symbolic "wish-tree" and an ornament from Ottoman culture. The ones at the Ahirkapi Street were first designed and used during an "Earth Day" celebration on April 22, 2002. Since then they are being used as the "wish tree" of the Hıdrellez spring festivals which is organized by "The Association of Ahırkapi Hidrellez Festivals" and supported by local Eminönü Municipality as well as by Istanbul Governorship. In 2009, the activity was credited and supported by "Istanbul 2010, European Capital of Culture" project.

Until 2009, all the traditional spring foods and drinks (both the traditional ones and the brewery) used to be sold through the street-buffets, while the local musicians perform gypsy and Balkan music. In order to get food and drink at Ahırkapı Street one should have bought the coupons for food (the white ones) and brewery (the red ones) first. Those coupons were treated like cash money! The Ahirkapi Roman Orchestra, which is consisting of the neighboring musician groups of Ahirkapi community, performed street concerts along with the guest performers... Küçük Hasan from Lüleburgaz a zurna genius and the drum master Tamer Kum and his group came every year. In 2007, The Ahirkapı Junior Orchestra (the children of the “Great Roman Orchestra” members), The "Macedon Koçani Orkestar", Buzuki Orhan, Yannis and Gorkem Saulis; Semaver Theatre Company, Goksenin Ileri Istanbul Songs Group joined and and DJ Shantel performed along with the others during whole evening.

The number of the participants significantly increased and reached 50.000 in 2007 and over 70.000 in 2008. So that the venue had to be carried to a larger venue in 2009: The Ahırkapı Park!
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4:48 PM

JAPAN YEAR 2010 IN TURKEY

The friendly relations, which started with the visit of Ottoman Empire's Ertugrul Frigate to Japan and the disaster following the visit, will reach its 120th anniversary in 2010.

Not only the Ertugrul Frigate Disaster but also several historical incidents such as the rescue of Japanese people by a Turkish Airlines plane during Iran-Iraq War that symbolize the friendship between two countries are frequently mentioned. What is common in those two incidents is the courage and fidelity that the ancestors of the two nations displayed under difficult circumstances without expecting any return.

The two nations are proud of each other because of such a historical background.

Relations between the two countries in all fields, especially in political, economic, cultural fields, have developed thanks to our ancestors and the mutual interaction established between the people of these two countries. The number of Japanese tourist visiting Turkey has been growing steadily and it has reached 160,000, meanwhile Japanese investors' activities in Turkey are also growing. The number of symbolic projects such as the Bosphorus Rail Tube Crossing (Marmaray) Project and the construction of the Kaman-Kalehoyuk Archeological Museum are growing as well.

Even if we are very content with the level of relations between the two countries, we believe that the relations still have the capacity to be enhanced.

Therefore, we would like to state here once more that we have to stand face to face. We strongly believe that by standing face to face, the two countries would be able to walk towards new common goals hinging on new discoveries and their relationship based on mutual trust. Turkey, which lies at a strategic crossing between Asia, Europe and Middle East, has an important role in the stability of the region. We would like to further our partnership with such an important friendly country.

The “Japan Year” is a very important opportunity to re-discuss the current friendship and partnership between the two countries and “friendly Turkey” and to re-establish relations.

We have chosen the following three items as the primary objectives of the “Japan Year”:
(please click here for the details of the three objectives)

To introduce beauties of Japan
Enhance friendship
Carry our cooperation to the future
We expect applications for logo, slogan and activities for these three themes. We wish to realize many kinds of activities in Turkey during the “Japan Year” that will last for a year.

By the “Japan Year”, we also wish to enhance mutual understanding, friendship and interaction between Japanese and Turkish people and to convey these values to the younger generations as a value to be proud of.

So, these are the objectives of the “Japan Year”.

We hope to receive substantial participation from both countries for attaining the objectives of the “Japan Year 2010 in Turkey”.

-For click >Evenst of the year
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