The sheer artistry of Sibel Köse and friends throws doom-and-gloom to the winds
By John Shakespeare Dyson | January 30, 2023
Last Saturday I went to the Nardis Jazz Club in Galata to listen to the Turkish jazz singer Sibel Köse and her quartet. Having fortified ourselves with scrumptuous cakes at Şirin Fırın, a highly-recommended patisserie in nearby Büyük Hendek Caddesi, my companion and I wended our way through the crowds...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares
By Lindsay Fulcher | January 30, 2023
It was with great sadness that I heard the news that my beautiful, intelligent, rebellious friend Philippa Scott had died. Her delicate Pre-Raphaelite looks belied a determined, fearless and independent spirit that took her on dangerously exotic journeys to the Near East and beyond. Born in India, her early childhood...
The latest LARTA fair is overflowing with fine textiles
By Mina Turunç | January 25, 2023
After a pandemic-induced three-year hiatus, Cornucopia Magazine is back at the London Art and Textile Fair (LARTA), one of the highlights of the winter edition of the London Decorative Fair at Battersea Park. From Tuesday to Sunday this week, LARTA offers an exquisite selection of textiles and antique rugs from...
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Islamic Art, Textiles
Hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand
By Monica Fritz | January 14, 2023
What better to do on a winter day than listen to this wonderful history podcast hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand on the subject of Empires. Among the many brilliant historians joining is Cornucopia's Barnaby Rogerson talking about the Ottoman siege of Cyprus and Caroline Finkel, still in the...
By Cornucopia Connoisseur | January 13, 2023
Congratulations to the Argentinian designer Cristian Mohaded and his collaborators on winning
Wallpaper's best new weaves award 2023 for his amazing installation
Weaving Towers exhibited in Bodrm this summer. The work was part of the exhibition
Between Humankind and Nature staged by ISTANBUL '74. For more on the show visit...
A 16th-century book of Turkish manners
By Cornucopia Connoisseur | December 27, 2022
Reviewed in the next issue of Cornucopia by William Kynan-Wilson is a facsimile of an extraordinary Turkish book of manners, Scenes from the 16th CenturyOttoman Empire I: Facsimile of Türkische Manierenbuch from Kassel University Library, edited by Ömer Erdem and Mehmet Tütüncü (SOTA Publications, €200). The pages are also available...
By Thomas Roueché | December 27, 2022
The first artworks were created by our ancestors, touching their palms onto the walls of caves. Later, tapestries and wall hangings came to occupy a similar context. Created often by female artisans, they adorned the home, a medium that speaks directly to the domestic space, that brings art into contact...
By Cornucopia Connoisseur | November 19, 2022
Good to be back at the Istanbul Art and Antique Fair. It's a quieter edition than usual. Timing is not ideal – half-term has seen a minor exodus of the fair's usual clients – but there are a few gems for the eagle-eyed. And intriguing questionmarks. Who is P Giraud,...
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Fine Art
By Cornucopia | November 3, 2022
On Saturday evening, people gathered to mark the Republic's 99th birthday in Şairler Sofası Park for the traditional 'Fener Alayı', a candle-lit procession down to the Beşiktaş Meydanı. These photographs were taken in Akaretler, Beşiktaş, by the Swedish-German photographer and filmmaker Annette Louise Solakoğlu, whose exhibition Ode to Istanbul is at...
This month, the famous Istanbul jazz club comes to London to celebrate in style. Join the party…
By Tony Barrell | October 26, 2022
When I covered the Istanbul Jazz Festival for Cornucopia back in 2004, I paid a visit to a small jazz club called Nardis. I was immediately impressed by the place, and found myself heading back there on a couple of occasions, following a road heading downhill from the Galata Tower....
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Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz
By Cornucopia Connoisseur | October 26, 2022
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Islamic Sales week is upon us. The top lot at Sotheby's on October 26 was for Lot 49, an illustrated folio (f.295r.) from The Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, attributed to Mirza 'Ali, Persia, Tabriz, Royal Atelier, circa 1525-35, illustrating Rustam recovering Rakhsh from Afrasiyab's herd. It was expected to fetch £4–6...
Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Aymée Nuviola in concert at the Akbank Jazz Fest
By John Shakespeare Dyson | October 14, 2022
On October 6 I visited the Zorlu Center in Zincirlikuyu to listen to the Cuban jazz duo pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba and singer Aymée Nuviola perform as part of the 32nd Akbank Jazz Festival. As a genre, Cuban jazz was completely unfamiliar to me, and I went to this concert only...
New wave Turkish photography
By Monica Fritz (portrait and text) | September 21, 2022
When the 25-year-old Francophile philosophy graduate Melike Koçak (portrait above by Monica Fritz) decided to dedicate her life to photography, she was unwittingly joining a new wave of young Istanbul photographers. Her work has already been widely exhibited. This year she was selected to become an ARTPIL 30-Under-30 Woman Photographer...
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Photography
By John Shakespeare Dyson | July 8, 2022
On Monday 20 June I attended a concert entitled ‘Mare Nostrum’ at what is known in Turkish as Fransız Sarayı (‘French Palace’), the French Consulate and Ambassadorial Residence in Beyoğlu. There is an entrance to this diplomatic complex in Nuru Ziya Sokak (the side street that leaves İstiklal Caddesi opposite...
Echoes of Life: Alice Sara Ott's Chopin Preludes
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 25, 2022
Alice Sara Ott, a half-German, half-Japanese pianist, performed in an event entitled ‘Echoes of Life’ (
Yaşamdan Yansımalar) at the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall on Thursday, June 16 (part of the Istanbul Music Festival). I describe it as an ‘event’ as it had a visual component as well as an...
When the festival turned inwards: an evening of soul-caressing under the umbrella pines of Emirgan
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 18, 2022
On Monday June 13 I went to a concert of Turkish classical music given as part of this year’s İKSV Music Festival, on the Fıstıklı Teras of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Emirgan. The fact that this terrace overlooks the Bosphorus is important in itself, but its significance increased to...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
An exceptionally enjoyable concert at the new Atatürk Cultural Centre – for all its failure to deliver ‘volume’
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 14, 2022
On Saturday June 11 I made my first visit to the newly-opened Türk Telekom Opera Hall in the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Taksim Square. The occasion was a concert by the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra that was part of the Beyoğlu Kültür Yolu Festivali, an event that translates as the...
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Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, - Musical Shares
A play of fragility and strength
By Monica Fritz | June 10, 2022
Don't miss the last days of 'Billur', Yasemin Aslan Bakiri's Glass Art exhibition in Nevmekan Selimiye. The show has been prolonged till June 20 and is well worth the ferry ride over. Intricately crafted kaftans woven with metals and glass hang in Sultan Selim III's historic hamam, now a library,...
Posted in
Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, Highlights Turkey
A whistlestop tour of the festival by Cornucopia's music critic
By John Shakespeare Dyson | June 2, 2022
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The countdown has begun for this year’s İKSV Music Festival, which is to begin on June 6. Classical music enthusiasts may have already read my piece on this subject in the latest edition of
Cornucopia, but a gentle reminder may be necessary. I need to make it clear at the...
Posted in
Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music, Main Featured Turkey
The Cornucopia community
By Monica Fritz | May 3, 2022
Sir Don McCullin, photographer, and Barnaby Rogerson, author, on the road again, here in Lake Bafa. Subscribe to Cornucopia and join avid readers around the world, from Rome to the Australian bush and back to Istanbul again. We are in the thousands!
Father Ian in his Istanbul Cottage. A...
