The Opus Amadeus Organ Festival
By John Dyson | October 28, 2026
On October 19 I attended an organ recital in the crypt of ‘Saint-Antoine’ – the St Anthony of Padua Italian Catholic Church in Galatasaray. This was one of the concerts in this year’s Opus Amadeus Organ Festival, an event put on every autumn by Mehmet Mestçi, the impresario who is...
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Music & Performing Arts
The AKM resounds with the Ode to Joy
By John Dyson | October 24, 2026
The Istanbul State Opera and Ballet Orchestra and Chorus opened their 2026-27 season with a performance of Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9 at the Atatürk Cultural Centre on 19 September. My companions and I were fortunate enough to have good seats in the middle of the auditorium, and so were able...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
An inspiring concert by Turkey’s classical musicians of the future
By John Shakespeare Dyson | October 20, 2026
The Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual Istanbul concert is the brainchild of conductor Cem Mansur, who founded it in 2007 with the help of the Sabancı Foundation, its main sponsor; it now operates under the auspices of the Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation. The annual concert in Istanbul, this year at...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
A rock legend performs in Harbiye
By John Dyson | October 8, 2026
It was a sultry evening in early July when I made my way to the Cemil Topuzlu Open-Air Theatre in Harbiye, Istanbul to attend a concert by Robert Plant – the former lead singer of Led Zeppelin, one of the longest-lasting outfits in the history of rock music – and...
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Music & Performing Arts
The Vienna Symphony Orchestra & Kian Soltani in the 2026 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival finale
By John Shakespeare Dyson | September 21, 2026
And so, on June 24, the 2026 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival came to an end. Much thanks and appreciation are once again due to this marvellous organisation, which continues to bring fine feasts to Istanbul music-lovers’ tables (and I don’t mean on motorbikes). Long may it continue! The grand finale...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
By John Dyson | September 10, 2026
The third concert of the 2026 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival that I attended took place at the Atatürk Cultural Centre on June 23. It is always a pleasure to listen to the foreign orchestras who come to Istanbul to play at the Festival, and compare them with Turkey’s own outfits....
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
By John Dyson | July 30, 2026
The first concert of the 2026 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival that I attended took place in the Atatürk Cultural Centre’s Theatre Hall on June 15. I chose this particular event because it featured the Jussen Brothers, a youthful piano duo from Holland that I knew to be top notch, and...
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Music & Performing Arts
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 3, 2026
The ENKA compound on the hill leading down from Maslak towards İstinye was the scene of an inspiring Gala Concert on April 19th. The event featured performances by seven young musicians who had been identified by the jury at
ENKA Sanat (‘ENKA Arts’), and it began with a speech by...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music
By John Shakespeare Dyson | May 7, 2026
On Friday, February 13 I braved the inauspiciousness of the date to attend a concert at the Atatürk Cultural Centre. This event, one of the DenizBank concerts, brought together two musicians from France: Lionel Bringuier (pictured above), who would be conducting the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, and his pianist brother...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Musical Shares
By John Shakespeare Dyson | January 17, 2026
On November 28 I attended a concert at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in which the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Sascha Goetzel (photograph by Özge Balkan). This event, one of the DenizBank Concerts, started off with an announcement that the first item on the programme – Debussy’s
Prélude...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
A tour de force from Alexander Malofeev
By John Shakespeare Dyson | May 19, 2025
On April 14 I went to the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall to attend a recital by the young Russian pianist Alexander Malofeev. Born in 2001 and currently resident in Berlin, he first came to prominence when he won the piano category of the 8th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
Battle of the big bands
By John Shakespeare Dyson | December 21, 2024
On November 01 I went to the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall in Harbiye to witness an unusual event – a jazz concert involving two orchestras playing simultaneously on the same stage. Although the event was advertised as a ‘clash’, it was in reality a friendly cooperation, an experiment whose...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
Jazz pianists Aydın and Cenk Esen mesmerise at the opening of the new Rahşan Düren exhibition, ‘Verwegenheit’
By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 10, 2024
On October 15 I made my way to Beyoğlu for the opening of an exhibition of paintings by the artist Rahşan Düren entitled
Verwegenheit, which I believe means ‘audacity’ or ‘boldness’ in German. I had been told that Aydın Esen, described as the best jazz pianist in the world by...
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Exhibitions, Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
Zenia Duell admires a magnificent Uzbek recasting of Handel's Tamerlano
By Zenia Duell | November 9, 2024
The curtain rose to reveal an enormous sculpture of a horse’s head, equalling the height of the theatre and encased in a cube of LED-lit scaffolding. This was the opening night of Handel’s
Tamerlano, presented by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, directed by Stefano Poda and performed at...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Opera
Why isn't Cem Mansur's astonishing Turkish Youth Orchestra touring the globe
By John Shakespeare Dyson | August 26, 2024
On July 24 I went to the Atatürk Cultural Centre to see the Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the brainchild of conductor Cem Mansur, perform in a programme of works by Hector Berlioz, Sergei Rachmaninov, the young Turkish composer Ege Gür and Sergei Prokofiev. (I thank Mr Mansur for kindly providing...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 29, 2024
This concert, one of the last in the 2024 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival, was also one of those organised within the framework of the ‘Hungarian-Turkish Year of Culture’. Hungarian musicians featured prominently in this year’s events: violinist Kristóf Baráti (a recipient of the Kossuth Prize, his country’s highest cultural award)...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
Raci Pişmişoğlu and group at the Nardis Jazz Club
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 7, 2024
On Monday May 27 I made my way along Büyük Hendek Caddesi towards the Nardis Jazz Club, picking my through the throng of selfie-taking tourists taking advantage of the unique backdrop of a round, stone-built watchtower, built by the Genoese in the mid-14th century, that has become rather famous. On...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
A review of the 2024 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival opening concert
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 24, 2024
The 2024 İKSV Istanbul Music Festival – the 52nd in the series – opened with a concert at the Atatürk Cultural Centre on May 21. As usual, the proceedings began with speeches by administrators (including Mr Bülent Eczacıbaşı, Chairperson at the İKSV – the ‘Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts’)...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
By John Shakespeare Dyson | May 13, 2024
On March 22 I went to the Atatürk Cultural Centre to hear the USA-born Turkish pianist Özgür Aydın play Beethoven’s
Piano Concerto No 4 in G major, accompanied by the Istanbul State Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen. In the second half, the orchestra played...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
By John Shakespeare Dyson | March 16, 2024
It had been far too long since I had been to the opera in Istanbul, so on February 28 I made a visit to the Atatürk Cultural Centre to attend a performance of Gioachino Rossini’s two-act opera
Maometto Secundo (‘Mehmet II’), first performed in Naples in 1820. Suffice it to...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Musical Shares, - Opera
