İZMİR NEW MUSIC DAYS-III

It has been a great pleasure to commence the performances live in Ahmed Adnan Saygun Hall this year. Following a 2-day workshop by Niklas Seidl the festival opened  with the performance of Re-calibrated Conduction Ensemble of Timucin Şahin on May 24. Established by composer and guitarist Timuçin Şahin and joined by students of the  Yaşar Univesity, the ensemble presented a partly improvised, real-time performance.

 On the same night Ensemble Handwerk from Cologne performed a multifaceted program ranging from instrumental music to musik theater accommodating a well-equipped stage set-up and dailyllife objects. The ensemble premiered also Mert Moralı’s new work Ballad for the Risk Class II composed for the festival.

The event continued on the second day with violinist and gestural artist Winnie Huang and trombonist Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn.  presented a repertory with an expanding approach to performance. In the program note they mention:

                          “In an age of post-instrumentalism and non-cochlear sound art, they                                         search for ways to deconstruct bodies and instruments and intricately                                               reassemble them in startling new forms.”

The festival closed with a concert of Yaşar University Music Department faculty members on May 25th. The program included solo works of prominent composers from  20th-21st. centuries and concluded with ‘For Viola and Piano’ by İlhan Usmanbaş.

I would like to mention that this year the festival broadened its fronts in two significant areas. The first one is that two new works by Dilay Doğanay and Mert Moralı has been specifically composed for this event and performed during the festival concerts. The seond one, that works of four young composers form outside of İzmir have been read by Ensembe Handwerk. I hope that İzmir New Music Days will maintain expanding its scope in both areas and will continue materializing further world premieres in the upcoming years and grant opportunities for young composers to work with world-known musicians.

The fact that this year’s program required sound systems in different layers, led to a new collaboration with sound engineer Ahmed Ozan Murat and Kerem Ince who set-up the sound system and provided the sound recording of the whole event. I am very thankful for their utmost professionalism and kindness. Hosting 4 concerts and three workshops whitin 3 days would be impossible without a production team. A sincere thanks to all members Can Karacadağlı, Çağdaş Onaran, Özde Çalışkan, and Toykan Efe Kahraman, who spent their time mostly at the concert hall, hosted our guests, recorded the concerts, and workshops, photographed the events. Thank you very much!