The arts diary

Tuesday, December 02

JAZZ

Ozan Musluoğlu Quintet

Double-bass player Ozan Musluoğlu, the group’s founder, attended the Music Department of Bilgi University. He began studying his chosen instrument (with Volkan Hürsever, James Lewis and Kürşat And) in 2001, and from 2003 to 2008 toured Turkey and other countries with ‘Athena’, a Turkish ska and punk rock group. The ‘Ozan Musluoğlu Quartet’ was formed in 2009. His first album, *Coincidence*, appeared in 2009, and this was followed by *40th Day* (2011), *My Best Friends are Pianists* (2012) and *My Best Friends are Vocalists* (2015). His latest album, *Nine II*, released in 2023, features pianist Danny Grissett, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt, tenor saxophonist Engin Recepoğulları and drummer Ferit Odman.

Ozan Musluoğlu with Barış Doğukan Yazıcı (trumpet), Engin Recepoğulları (tenor saxophone), Kaan Bıyıkoğlu (piano) and Ferit Odman (drums).

Touché by N Kolay, Zorlu Performing Arts Center (PSM)

Tel: +90 212 924 01 00 – +90 850 222 67 76

21:00 (doors open 19:30)

Tickhttps://www.passo.com.tr/tr/etkinlik/ozan-musluoglu-quintet-zorlupsm-touche/9046320ets

Prices: 1175TL, 1300TL (front row), 4107TL (box, inc. dinner)

Event website]

Wednesday December 10

JAZZ

Emir Ersoy Cuban Classics

Pianist and composer Emir Ersoy, who founded the Quartera group with Grammy award-winning drummer Robby Ameen, will be accompanied on this occasion by bass guitarist Eylem Pelit, drummer Volkan Öktem, vocalist and percussionist Aleixi Rivera Contreras and trumpeter Sercan Kerpiççiler. Their programme will consist of Latin American and Cuban jazz compositions in various styles – salsa, cha cha, son cubano and rumba.

Touché by N Kolay, Zorlu Performing Arts Center (PSM)

Tel: +90 212 924 01 00 – +90 850 222 67 76

21:00 (doors open 19:30)

Tickets from [Passo]()

Prices: 1175TL, 1300TL (front row), 4107TL (box, inc. dinner)

Event website

Thursday December 18

Operatic arias

Murat Karahan: ‘The Romantics’

Murat Karahan, a distinguished Turkish tenor who was trained at the Bilkent University Faculty of Music and the Performing Arts in Ankara and at the Santa Cecilia Conservatoire in Rome, has performed in many famous opera houses in Europe including the Berlin Staatsoper, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Arena di Verona, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Bolshoi Theatre and the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. From 2018 to 2023 he was General Artistic Director of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet.

Türkcell Theatre (‘Türkcell Sahnesi’), Zorlu Performing Arts Center (PSM), Levazım Mah., Vadi Cad. No 2, Beşiktaş, 34340 Istanbul

Tel: +90 212 924 01 00 – +90 850 222 67 76

21:00 (doors open 20:00)

Tickets from [Passo](https://www.passo.com.tr/tr/etkinlik/murat-karahan-romantikler-zorlupsm-turkcell-sahnesi-biletleri/9431322)

Prices: 3996TL, 4400TL, 6660TL (VIP)

[Event website](https://www.zorlupsm.com/etkinlikler/murat-karahan-romantikler?p=2b0fb5f5-d9a7-4e1f-94e8-211cf62df479)

Thursday December 25

Jazz

Christmas Special with Bora Çeliker & Friends

Guitarist Bora Çeliker, who is also a singer, is both a highly experienced performer of mainstream jazz and blues, and a gifted improviser. At university in Ankara, he founded blues groups by the name of ‘The Crawling Snakes’, ‘The Jukes’ and ‘The King Bees’. Having played mainly blues up to that time, in 1999 he launched out into jazz, playing in a group that was centred around Janusz Szprot, a Polish musician who had come to Ankara to head up the Jazz Department of Bilkent University. Two years later, in 2001, he started playing in the Alan Ginter Quartet with the legendary Turkish pianist, saxophonist and composer Tuna Ötenel, and that same year began a two-year stint as presenter of the ‘Blues Machine’ programme on 92.3 Radio Kozmos in Istanbul. In 2005, he performed with the guitarist Sarp Maden as the opening act at a Jethro Tull concert in Istanbul’s Harbiye Open-Air Theatre.

Bora Çeliker, who carried out postgraduate studies in Performance at the Bilgi University Music Department, has in the past played with a number of leading Turkish jazz musicians including Nilüfer Verdi, Neşet Ruacan, Cem Aksel, Erdal Akyol, Burak Bedikyan, Kağan Yıldız, Ferit Odman, İmer Demirer and Selim Selçuk, as well as with former Bilgi University jazz teacher Ricky Ford.

On this occasion, he will be accompanied by Nilüfer Verdi (piano), Barış Ertürk (tenor saxophone), Oğuz Alp Erdoğmuş (double bass) and Burak Cihangirli (drums) in a Christmas concert consisting of numbers by Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as songs on the themes of Christmas and winter by Duke Ellington, Bobby Timmons, Oscar Peterson, Vince Guaraldi, Kenny Burrell, Geri Allen and Wynton Marsalıs.

Touché by N Kolay, Zorlu Performing Arts Center (PSM), Levazım Mah., Vadi Cad. No 2, Beşiktaş, 34340 Istanbul

Tel: +90 212 924 01 00 – +90 850 222 67 76

21:00 (doors open 19:30)

Tickets from [Passo](https://www.passo.com.tr/tr/etkinlik/christmas-special-with-bora-celiker-friends-zorlupsm-touche/9144319)

Prices: 900TL, 1100TL (front row), 4107TL (box, inc. dinner)

[Event website](https://www.zorlupsm.com/etkinlikler/christmas-special-with-bora-celiker-friends?p=3f462183-f58d-4338-8ab9-a0180a595347)

Friday December 26

PIANO RECITAL

Mozart’ın Ayak İzleri (‘In Mozart’s Footsteps’)

İlyun Bürkev & Elif Naz Ertuğrul

The up-and-coming young pianist İlyun Bürkev began her training at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul State Conservatoire at the age of 4, then took lessons from the distinguished piano virtuoso Gülsin Onay (who describes İlyun as ‘my heiress’), and is now studying at the Salzburg Mozarteum University under Prof. Pavel Gililov. Having heard Prof. Gililov play Brahms’s *Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor* with members of the ‘Les Essences’ chamber orchestra a couple of years ago, I can confirm that İlyun is in very good – and extremely disciplined – hands. In 2024, she played the Grieg Piano Concerto at the opening concert of the İKSV Istanbul Music Festival. This year, she recorded her first album with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, following which she gave concerts at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, in Prague and in Vienna.

Elif Naz Ertuğurul received her first piano lessons at the Istanbul University State Conservatoire at the age of 6 (she is now 12), and has recently been admitted to the pre-college programme at the Salzburg Mozarteum University. She is also a composer, and one of her pieces has been performed at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall; I look forward to hearing further contributions from her. Elif Naz, who in 2024 played Haydn’s *Piano Concerto No 11 in D major* at the Süreyya Opera House, is currently a pupil of Prof. Andreas Weber. Prof. Weber is director of the Leopold Mozart Institute, which ‘supports young students in their artistic development’, and she is also receiving tuition from Gülsin Onay. So like İlyun, she could hardly wish for better teachers.

Türkcell Platimun Theatre (‘Platinum Sahnesi’), Zorlu Performing Arts Center (PSM), Levazım Mah., Vadi Cad. No 2, Beşiktaş, 34340 Istanbul

Tel: +90 212 924 01 00 – +90 850 222 67 76

21:00 (doors open 20:30)

Tickets Prices: 770TL, 990TL

Event website