Young masters of the horn

The horn maestro Radovan Vlatković returns to Urla for the 2017 UMA masterclasses

By Berrin Torolsan and John Scott | September 14, 2017


The great Croatian horn-player Radovan Vlatković is giving the first of this year’s masterclasses at the Urla Music Academy (UMA). Four days of happy music-making culminate in a concert at 7pm on Saturday evening (September 17). Tickets are free (and donations towards a wonderful musical project most welcome). Okan Akbaş...
Posted in Music & Performing Arts, - Classical Music Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

A sporting chance

Heading for the Golden Horn to catch the rowing races

By Emily Arauz | September 8, 2017


The Balkan Rowing Championship takes place in Haliç this year on September 9–10. This will be a ‘Junior’ championship (18 and below). Consequently, the Haliç will be closed to the ship traffic for this event. Rowing races are ideally followed by bicycles or at the finish area but unfortunately following...
Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Rewarding reads: March and April 2017

A revealing relief, must-try Turkish dishes and the perfect day in Istanbul

By Emma Harper | April 26, 2017


In this blog series, we highlight some of our favourite Turkey-related articles and news titbits that we’ve read over the past month (or two, in this case). A relief uncovered by chance in eastern Anatolia has led archaeologists to revise the history of Harput, reports Hurriyet Daily News. Subsequent examinations...
Posted in Archaeology, Culinary Arts, Film, Music & Performing Arts, Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

John Freely, 1926–2017

By Cornucopia | April 20, 2017


Very sad news. The great John Freely passed away early yesterday morning. We have lost a cherished friend of the Bosphorus, author of more than 50 books, with at least 50 more ready to roll, and one of Irish nature’s great raconteurs. John was the incomparable bard of old Stamboul....
Posted in Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

In memory of David French, intrepid explorer of Anatolia’s Roman roads

By David Barchard | March 25, 2017


David French, the former director of the British Institution at Ankara, who died on Friday (pictured right), was a leading figure in British archaeological research in Turkey for six decades. For just over a quarter of a century, he was Ankara Director of the Institute, then an exclusively archaeological body....
Posted in Archaeology, Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

The smiling Orientalist

An Anglo-Turkish moment: JF Lewis’s portrait (almost certainly) of the great Egyptologist Sir John Gardner Wilkinson

By John Scott | March 17, 2017


This witty portrait by the Orientalist painter John Frederick Lewis can be found this weekend at BADA, the British Antique Dealers’ Association’s annual fair in Chelsea (March 15–21). In Guy Peppiatt Fine Art’s catalogue notes, the art historian and JF Lewis-expert Briony Llewellyn describes the sitter in Turkish costume as...
Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

In memory of Bryer

By John Scott | November 11, 2016


It was with enormous sadness that we learned of the passing of the great Byzantine historian Anthony Bryer. The funeral service was held yesterday at St Peter's Church, Harborne, in Birmingham. Professor Emeritus of Byzantine Studies at the University of Birmingham, or simply Bryer, as he was known to all,...
Posted in History, Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

The neighbourhood has changed

In conversation with the artist and cartoonist Cem Dinlenmiş about his exhibition ‘You’ll Know When You See It’ at x-ist

By Emma Harper | February 23, 2016


When it comes to recent developments in Turkey, sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying. One of the best at finding the humour in what would otherwise make you weep is Cem Dinlenmiş, the artist and cartoonist whose weekly ‘Anything Goes’ (‘Her Şey Olur’) column in Penguen pointedly...
Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Expansions in Black

From The Paper Diaries 2015, by Deborah Wargon

By Malika Browne | November 25, 2015


A work by Deborah Wargon at her recent Istanbul exhibition. Photograph: Monica Fritz In a house in Balat on a quiet street just past St Mary of the Mongols, a fish is pinned to the wall above a bed. ‘My friend, the owner of this house, tells me this house...
Posted in Contemporary Art Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Cappadocia dreaming

By Victoria Khroundina | August 21, 2015


If you’ve been following the blog, you will know I have been travelling these past few weeks. Last weekend I finally got around to visiting Cappadocia, and out of all the places I have been to in Turkey this awed me the most. The otherworldly landscape peppered with fairy chimneys,...
Posted in Nature, Photography, Travel Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Turquoise beauty

By Victoria Khroundina | August 14, 2015


If you want to get up close and personal with Turkey’s Mediterranean coast there’s no better way to do so than by boat. You can stay in a town such as Fethiye, Kaş, Kalkan or Antalya, and take daily boat trips or, better still, hire your own boat and spend...
Posted in Modern Art, Photography, Travel Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Yaşar Kemal, a writer’s hero

By Cornucopia UK | March 20, 2015


Joobin Bekhrad’s moving tribute to Yaşar Kemal in Reorient magazine perfectly encapsulates the legacy the novelist left not only within Turkey’s literary history, but for storytelling in general. Bekhrad lovingly calls Kemal, who passed away last month, a ‘hero’. Writing the piece in his Toronto apartment, Bekhrad is surrounded by Kemal’s...
Posted in Literature, Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Dr Andrew Mango (1926–July 6, 2014)

A tribute by Andrew Finkel

By THE CORNUCOPIA BLOG | July 9, 2014


I walk most days past Aslanyataği Street in the Cihangir neighbourhood of Istanbul – which translates as the Lion’s Den. It is a tiny loop of an alleyway and  I know it better for a particular building called Jones Apt which was home to the Mango family, scions of the...
Posted in Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Gifts from the Shah

‘Shah Abbas’ Gifts to the Serenissima’ exhibition

By Cornucopia UK | March 19, 2014


A fascinating exhibition on display at the Chamber of the Scrutinio in the Doge’s Palace in Venice traces the history of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Venice and the Safavid Persia under the rule of Shah Abbas the Great (1587–1629). The show specifically highlights the gifts exchanged between the two powers...
Posted in Contemporary Art, Exhibitions, Fine Art, History, Islamic Art Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

David Winfield 1929–2013

The scholar and archaeological explorer who restored the frescoes of Ayasofya in Trabzon

By Cornucopia | January 12, 2014

During the eight  and a half decades of his life, David Winfield, who died a few months ago on the island of Mull, was by turns a writer on architectural aesthetics, possibly the leading restorer anywhere of Byzantine frescoes, a skilled conservationist who was the National Trust’s first-ever national Surveyor...
Posted in Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

A tribute to Osman Streater

By David Barchard | December 10, 2013


Osman Streater, who died on November 22, might have seemed to be simply the ultimate London gentleman, a Chairman of a London Club, a leading figure in City PR, an amusing but always well-informed conversationalist, and unfailingly polite and courteous, with his ironic sense of humour kept just a little...
Posted in News, Obituaries Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Black squirrels on the Bosphorus?

By John Scott | August 26, 2013


What appeared to be a cousin of this chap (photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) dropped by for tea in Yeniköy yesterday. Perfectly good manners. Enjoyed a walnut. Could any reader explain what on earth it was doing on the Bosphorus? Our friendly black squirrel sported an elegant patch of white...
Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Casting an expert eye on the Yedikule bostans

Archaeobotany workshop with Dr Chantel White

By Victoria Khroundina | August 17, 2013


Cornucopia’s editor John Scott gave his keen observations of last Wednesday’s archaeobotany workshop at Yedikule bostans (gardens) with Dr Chantel White in yesterday’s blog. Today I will take you through Chantel’s own observations. The area of the Yedikule gardens marked on a map of Istanbul A bit of background: the...
Posted in Culinary Arts, History, News, Talks and Lectures Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Beguiling bostans

By John Scott | August 16, 2013


At first it seemed it would be impossible to follow Chantel White's softly spoken words as she described the changing fortunes of Yedikule's bostans. Perfectly audible above the rustling leaves that muffled the distant traffic, she was hardly to blame. It was a good talk, not a wasted word – occasionally...
Tagged bosphorus, istanbul

Mongolians on the marches

By Julie Witford | August 7, 2013


The Central Orchestra of the General Staff of the Mongolian Armed Forces had a day trip to Hawick today to see where a lot of the cashmere from their 30 million goats ends up.  Here a young Mongolian woman poses on top of the broad shoulders of the athletic Borderer,...
Posted in Music & Performing Arts, Highlights Around The World Tagged bosphorus, istanbul
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