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Seductive sonority

By John Shakespeare Dyson | April 15, 2025


On March 13 I made my way to the Notre Dame de Sion French Lycée in Harbiye for yet another musical event put on by the school. This time, the performer was Denis Pascal, a pianist who is the father of Aurélien Pascal – the cellist who played İlyas Mirzayev’s...
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A gem of purest ray serene

‘The Borusan Quartet’s performance was as near faultless as one has the right to expect of an assemblage of human beings’

By John Shakespeare Dyson | March 30, 2025

On February 18 I made my way to the ENKA compound on Katar Caddesi, the road that descends the hill from Maslak (north of Levent) towards İstinye (on the Bosphorus) in order to attend a concert by the Borusan String Quartet and pianist Özgür Aydın. I have to admit that...
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From misty Wales to a high Victorian salon in Istanbul

Looking back on Istanbul's spectacular harp festival

By John Shakespeare Dyson | March 11, 2025


The 2nd Ceren Necipoğlu Istanbul International Harp Festival was held from 14th to 19th January 2025 with the participation of three internationally-acclaimed lady harpists: Sioned Williams, a former principal harpist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra who is now an Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music; Florence Sitruk,...
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The extraordinary career of İlyas Mirzayev

By John Shakespeare Dyson | February 14, 2025


On January 11 2025 I attended a Coffee Concert at the Atatürk Cultural Centre in Taksim. These concerts take place on Saturday mornings in the downstairs foyer – where concertgoers go for refreshments. Fortunately, the space on this floor of the AKM is big enough to accommodate a stage and...
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How the year began

By Alexandra de Cramer | February 10, 2025


Öktem Aykut Gallery Toygun Özdemir Unforced Errors, Coincidences and Lost Years January 10, 2025 – February 08, 2025 Unforced Errors, Coincidences and Lost Years marked Toygun Özdemir’s fifth solo exhibition at Öktem Aykut Gallery, featuring a carefully curated collection of 22 works created over the past three years. This series...
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The poetry of bathing

Barbarossa's 1540s baths – the Cinili Hamam in Istanbul's Zeyrek district – opens with a flourish

By Alexandra de Cramer photography by Monica Fritz | February 1, 2025


This tile panel was originally located in the men’s hot room. The eight rectangular tiles are adorned with Persian couplets in nasta‘līq script from a poem highlighting the hamam's significance in Ottoman literary tradition. Poets such as Nâbî, Fuzulî and Nedîm were all inspired by the vibrant social and aesthetic...
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Roll over Bartók

Hungarian Jazz at the Naval Museum

By John Shakespeare Dyson | January 28, 2025

On December 15 I attended a jazz concert by Hungarian musicians at the Beşiktaş Naval Museum. The performers were the pianist and song-writer Peter Sárik (the group’s leader), double-bass player Tibor Fonay and drummer Attila Galfi, the trio’s speciality being jazzed-up versions of classical pieces. Actually, that isn’t quite as...
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A mistress of unease

Esra Özdoğan's The Ghost in the Machine at Galeri Nev

By Alexandra de Cramer | January 8, 2025


Esra Özdoğan's solo exhibition, The Ghost in the Machine, curated by Çağla Özbek, invites viewers into a world where the boundaries between life, death and illusion are constantly shifting. The title, drawn from the British philosopher Gilbert Ryle’s concept of the 'ghost' inhabiting the 'machine' of the body, offers a framework...
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Sine İçli’s Jittering Maps

By Alexandra de Cramer | January 8, 2025


‘making paste from rain/you may ask - how?/to dream long enough/for fermentation’ These lines, part of a poem by the multidisciplinary artist Sine İçli, are positioned in the lower-left corner of the opening wall – an ode to clay and its transformative process. This poem introduces İçli’s first solo exhibition...
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An archive for your thoughts

Beyoğlu bids farewell to another fine art gallery

By Alexandra de Cramer | January 7, 2025


Archive signifies the closing of a chapter for Versus Art Project as they bid farewell to their iconic white cube gallery in Istanbul—a space distinguished by its apartment-like layout, soaring ceilings and exposed moldings. For 12 years, the gallery has occupied Hanif Han, an exceptional example of Istanbul’s Art Nouveau...
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Children’s Rain Call with the Colours of the Rainbow

By Alexandra de Cramer | January 1, 2025


The Istanbul-born Armenian conceptual artist Sarkis’s fifth solo exhibition, Children’s Rain Call with the Colours of the Rainbow, offers a playful exploration of collective healing. Inspired by workshops he led with children at the Venice and Mardin Biennales, the exhibition invites viewers to engage with the universal experience of rain,...
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As the trees were turning in Cats Park…

Gábor Csalog at the Beşiktaş Naval Museum

By John Shakespeare Dyson | December 30, 2024


On October 21 I walked down the hill from the Kedili Park (Cats Park), by the Harbiye Military Museum to Maçka, and on down Süleyman Seba Caddesi to Beşiktaş, where I met up with my companion for a concert by the Hungarian pianist Gábor Csalog at the Beşiktaş Naval Museum....
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Nemrut with Don McCullin

Our trip in photos

By Text and photographs by Monica Fritz | December 29, 2024


Don McCullin and his wife, Catherine Fairweather, take in the dramtic view at dawn as our new travelling companion and local Hüseyin Bey nonchalantly strolls, feeling very much at home on the fire altar and in the mountains.  Nemrut, how to visit: Nemrut can be reached from both the Adiyaman and Malatya...
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Posted in Photography, Travel, - Monica at large

Ayda Demirci: Two

By Alexandra de Cramer | December 29, 2024


Two marks Ayda Demirci second solo exhibition at the Ambidexter Gallery (until December 28, 2024), presenting a series of abstract oil on linen and canvas works created in 2024. The title reflects the “binary bond between the paintings, sometimes formed by shared dimensions, simultaneous creation, or by similarity and contrast,”...
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Posted in Highlights Turkey

The Clash of the Titans

Battle of the big bands

By John Shakespeare Dyson | December 21, 2024


On November 01 I went to the Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall in Harbiye to witness an unusual event – a jazz concert involving two orchestras playing simultaneously on the same stage. Although the event was advertised as a ‘clash’, it was in reality a friendly cooperation, an experiment whose...
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Posted in Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz, - Musical Shares

Where to go for jazz in Turkey

By John Shakespeare Dyson | December 1, 2024


ISTANBUL Nardis The longest-running jazz club in Turkey is Nardis, close to the Galata Tower. Opened in 2002 by guitarist and jazz mentor Önder Focan and his wife Zuhal, who runs Jazz Dergisi (‘Jazz Magazine’), it hosts over 300 Turkish and foreign musicians every year. Concerts – of which there...
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Pure perfection

By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 25, 2024


On October 16 I made my way to the Süreyya Opera House in Kadıköy to hear the violinist Bahar Büyükgönenç and the pianist Tutu Aydınoğlu play works by Zoltán Kodály, Johannes Brahms, Manuel de Falla, Robert Schumann and Fikret Amirov. For the first time I had the privilege of sitting...
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He who kisses the joy as it flies…

Jazz pianists Aydın and Cenk Esen mesmerise at the opening of the new Rahşan Düren exhibition, ‘Verwegenheit’

By John Shakespeare Dyson | November 10, 2024


On October 15 I made my way to Beyoğlu for the opening of an exhibition of paintings by the artist Rahşan Düren entitled Verwegenheit, which I believe means ‘audacity’ or ‘boldness’ in German. I had been told that Aydın Esen, described as the best jazz pianist in the world by...
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Posted in Exhibitions, Music & Performing Arts, - Jazz

Tragedy with a twist

Zenia Duell admires a magnificent Uzbek recasting of Handel's Tamerlano

By Zenia Duell | November 9, 2024


The curtain rose to reveal an enormous sculpture of a horse’s head, equalling the height of the theatre and encased in a cube of LED-lit scaffolding. This was the opening night of Handel’s Tamerlano, presented by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, directed by Stefano Poda and performed at...
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Posted in Music & Performing Arts, - Opera

The Eternal Echo of Blue

By Alexandra de Cramer | October 22, 2024


Opening night. The triptych in the background is titled Repair/Lapis Lazuli by Ahmet Doğu İpek. Galerist kicked off the 2024-2025 art season with the exhibition Distilled From Scattered Blue, curated by Károly Aliotti, who brings a wealth of experience from his roles at Meşher and Arkas. The show features the diverse work of...
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