We would like to thank all our guests who were with us on our special night, celebrating our 25th anniversary. We wish to be together in our future celebrations.

Istanbul Music Festival is creating a new fund with the contributions of STONELINE which is one of the sponsors of the show. The project of “Musician Support Fund”, in the field of classical music, aims to support the professional musicians who are not working in a public institute or a private orchestra and are not able to perform because of the the pandemic of COVID-19, by providing them a performance opportunity on digital platforms. Applications to the “Musician Support Fund” which has been created by Istanbul Music Festival, can be made via the application form in this link, until the date of July 10.

Accordingly, we are in a period which economically damaged the musicians and all other beneficiaries of the music production and created different approaches concerning the access to art. IKSV General Manager Görgün Taner who states that “solidarity and cooperation will be our greatest tools while we endure this period”, emphasizes that the field of culture and arts will shapes its future with new and creative solutions and helping the artists is especially important in this period. Taner completes his words by saying “I am happy that we could start a support programme in the field of classical music through Istanbul Music Festival and we present our sincere gratitudes for STONELINE to actualised this dream of ours”.

STONELINE General Manager Mehmet Bayrak who states that we should emphasize on solidarity express his opinion of the support fund: “We are in a period which not only effects a country, but effects the world in a global scale. We need to reach the shore. With minimal damage. Elderly will lend his hand to the young, powerful will lend its hand to the weak. We too, as STONELINE family, wanted to contribute to the moral of artists, especially young artists who are one of the parties gravely effected by this period. We thank IKSV who provided this opportunity to us and who has been the strongest advocate for culture and arts in our country for 50 years.

Musician Support Fund Application Criteria

Participants who are residing in Turkey, completed their bachelor education, graduated from conservatories, who worked with the professional orchestras and communities performing in Turkey between the dates of January 2018 and January 2020 as a free orchestra musicians and is not currently employed in a goverment institute  or private institute or orchestra, will be able to apply to Musician Support Fund.

Participations will be evaluated by a council including Orhun Orhon (Maestro), Oğuzhan Kavruk (Antalya State Symphony Orchestra General Music Director and 1st Maestro), Özge Tanrıver (İzmir State Symphony Orchestra Manager), Ahmet Rahtuvan (Antalya State Symphony Orchestra Deputy Manager, Horn Artist), Ozan Göktan (Manager of Filarmonia Istanbul and Orchestra of Istanbul Chamber, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra Horn Artists) and Doğukan Çokşeker (CRR Symphony Orchestra Manager) as manager and led by Efruz Çakırkaya, Istanbul Music Festival Director). Musicians chosen by the festival management, by joining the streams with the title “Musical Talk” which will be aired on social media channels and providing a record which they made on online platforms to be presented in the stream, will have the opportunity to be awarded with TRY 1.000.

Within the scope of the project, applications of which has been opened on May 22, 2020 and is planned to remain open until July 10, it is aimed to support the orchestra musicians who are not able to work due to the pandemic.

“Musical Talk” records in IKSV Youtube Channel

In June, “Musical Talk with Hakan Şensoy” which has been organized within the scope of “Musician Support Fund actualised within the scope of Istanbul Music Festival by the contributions of one of the sponsors of the show, STONELINE, has hosted the famous names of the classical music in Turkey. Program which is streamed live on the “Facebook”, “Instagram” and “IKSV YouTube” channels of Istanbul Music Festival, on every Tuesday evenings at 21.00, with the technical help of Hereous, consists of a talk with the guest of the week and a small concert. Additionally, records o the musicians who are awarded with “Musician Support Fund” is streamed on the program.

>>You can reach the records of every program via “IKSV YouTube channel.

With the sponsorship of Stoneline, another legendary concert from Istanbul Music Festival which makes people respect the composer, , towards 2020 Beethoven year!

As Hans von Bülow once said, “The Well-Tempered Clavier is the “Old Testament” and Beethoven’s Sonatas are the “New Testament””. We need to believe in both of them”. In this concert, Piotr Anderszewski,  while presenting a program special to himself, requiring a great deal of virtuosity, also brings Bach’s Prelude and Fugues together with not the Sonatas or Beethoven, but his Diabelli Variations. Additionally, he plays Schumann’s piece inspired by Bach’s Preludes.

Piotr Anderszewski’s history with “Diabelli Variations” can be traced back to 1990 Leeds Piano Contest. Teldec company has made a swift album offer to Anderszewski who gathered all the attentions with this piece he played in semi-finals. Young pianist in his early 20’s who refused that offer, when he received the same offer from Virgin Classics many years later, has accepted it, thinking that his knowledge regarding the work of Beethoven is more profound. Whereas Anderszewski’s “Diabelli Variations” awarded with Choc du Monde de la Musique and ECHO Classic, is accepted as the best for a certian period, critics evaluate his concert performance as the best performance they have heard until today. Artist himself however, likenes this magnificent work to a journey and invites all the music enthusiast to this journey at the end of which they will be transformed. He describes Diabelli Variations as “a complete universe consisting of all the memories of the person, though it was a small cell at the beginning.”

For detailed information https://muzik.iksv.org/i/assets/muzik/document/piotr-anderszewski-2019-gp.pdf