Ode to Istanbul – Carte Blanche for the Oriental Landscapes Festival
The Oriental Landscapes Festival gave me a Carte Blanche evening + a commission to write a new composition!
I invited 5 wonderful friends / musicians I admire to join me. The composition is called ‘Ode to Istanbul’, and it is inspired by the many faces of this dazzling city.
In the last two days I got together with Sanem, Oguz, George, James and Udo and we rehearsed the new music. Salem Kalfa, our singer, selected a series of Turkish poems which I did put to music. These poets are Nazim Hikmet, Orhan Veli Kanik and Amit Yasar Oguzcan. And in composing music based on Istanbul I could not resist to dive into the music of clarinet player Selim Sesler. I have been a fan of his music since long! Oguz Buyukberber, our clarinet player even played with him!
We have two concerts and I would be happy to see you there:
Line up:
Sanem Kalfa – vocals
Oguz Buyukberber – clarinet/bass clarinet
George Dumitriu – violin/viola
Oene van Geel – F-Quintone/cajon
James Oesi – double bass
Udo Demanth – percussion