Category:Past Events

FALL 2011

MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE

This exciting event brings together the talents of DÜNYA and two other musical groups from each of the three Abrahamic traditions for an afternoon of celebration and song through Christian gospel songs, Sufi melodies, and Jewish music.

Location: Congregation Shirat Hayam, 55 Atlantic Avenue, Swampscott, MA
Date/Time: Sunday, October 23, 3-5:00pm

PLAYING FOR THE PLANET: World Strings Against Climate Change

DÜNYA performs along with South Indian music and classical guitar music. Proceeds of the event will benefit the environmental advocacy group 350.org. Great music for a great cause.

Location: Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury Street, Boston, MA
Date/Time: Friday, November 11, 7pm

TWO SACRED MUSIC TRADITIONS FROM THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN: Syriac and Greek Orthodox Christianity, a Comparison

This program offers a rare opportunity to hear practitioners of the music of Eastern Christianity, rarely heard by Americans who are not members of the Syriac and Greek Orthodox Churches. Syriac Orthodoxy uses the oldest surviving liturgy in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and the language of much of the Talmud. Greek Orthodoxy uses liturgical forms and texts that date back to the first century A.D. and was the official religion of the Byzantine empire which dominated the eastern Mediterranean from the 4th through the 15th centuries.

Two expert cantors will explore, through performance and dialogue, the shared musical language and the unique musical traits of the Syriac and Greek Orthodox traditions. Gabriel Aydın representing Syriac Orthodoxy and Menios Karanos representing Greek Orthodoxy will be joined by Dr. Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, who will act as a moderator of this lecture-performance.

Location: Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Maliotis Cultural Center, Dukakis Wing
Date/Time: Thursday, November 17, 2011, 3pm

Location: New England Conservatory, Pierce Hall
Date/Time: Friday, November 18, 2011, Noon

An Intimate Evening of 17^th Century Ottoman Music

Ali Ufki, born Albert Bobowski in 1610, was a Polish Christian who converted to Islam after his capture by the Ottoman Turks and spent the remainder of his life in Istanbul, becoming renowned as a court musician, as a notator of Ottoman classical music, and as a Bible translator. This intimate concert of 17^th century Ottoman music is mostly based on repertoire Ali Ufki collected in a unique manuscript—the famous Mecmua-i Saz–ı Söz of 1650—which preserved for modern times about a thousand songs and instrumental pieces, the first instance in which western staff notation was applied to Turkish music. Come to this one of a kind event to hear a special program of early Ottoman court, Sufi and entertainment music, performed by the DÜNYA ensemble with translations and projections of the Ali Ufki manuscript.

Location: AIC Center, 38 Newbury St. Suite 702 (7th Floor)
Date/Time: Saturday, December 10, 7pm
Price of admission: General: $15, Students/seniors: $10

SPRING 2011

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Since at least the 16th century, the Turkish maftirim repertoire–Hebrew devotional poetry set to Turkish makam music for use in the synagogue–demonstrates the deep relationships Ottoman Jews established with members of Muslim mystical brotherhoods. Leading scholar, Prof. Edwin Seroussi in a panel of three will speak on cultural, historical, religious and musical aspects of the topic, followed by dialogue with the audience.

The program will conclude with a lively recital featuring an ensemble of Jewish, Muslim and Christian vocalists and instrumentalists demonstrating examples of relevant musical repertoire.

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Folk, classical, religious and popular music of the Ottoman/Turkish tradition, interwoven with classical Ottoman music newly transcribed from 19th century Greek sources, Bektaşi Sufi music, Turkish-Jewish maftirim pieces in Hebrew based on Sufi music, and newly-composed polyphonic makam compositions.

FALL 2010

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Join us in an evening where the DUNYA ensemble will present an Ottoman tableaux of different religious musical practices in Islam, Greek Orthodoxy and Sephardic Judaism.

FALL 2009

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In this special concert a choir and an ensemble composed of Greek and Turkish musicians will perform together a program of Greek Orthodox (Byzantine) and Turkish Sufi (Mevlevi) music.

These two traditions exhibit substantial musical and historical commonalities, and share many instances of mutual influence and cross-fertilization.

The concert will feature internationally acclaimed master musicians from Greece and Turkey: chanter Photis Ketsetzis, Professor of Byzantine Ecclesiastical Music at Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology; and Şenol Filiz, ney and Birol Yayla, tanbur, the Istanbul-based duo YANSIMALAR, whose many recordings span the range of contemporary Turkish classical and Sufi music, original composition and music for film.

This concert explores the many cultural layers of music in Turkey: rural and urban popular music, Sufi music, Greek music and Ottoman court music.

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Since at least the 16th century, the Turkish maftirim repertoire–Hebrew devotional poetry set to Turkish makam music for use in the synagogue–demonstrates the deep relationships Ottoman Jews established with members of Muslim mystical brotherhoods. A panel of three scholars will speak on cultural, historical, religious and musical aspects of the topic, followed by dialogue with the audience. The program will conclude with a lively 40-minute recital featuring an ensemble of Jewish, Muslim and Christian vocalists and instrumentalists demonstrating examples of relevant musical repertoire.

SPRING 2009

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A program of Turkish music full of longing—for love, for homeland, for God. An ensemble of five vocalists and instrumentalists presents an array of classical, folk, Sufi and popular songs, dances and improvisations representing two hundred years of music in Turkey.

Turkish art and folk music in its most infectious form in an intimate setting with food and drink where audience interaction is expected.

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This concert will present the music and musicians featured on DÜNYA’s new CD by the same name, scheduled to be released at this concert, which explores the many cultural layers of music in Turkey: rural and urban popular music, Sufi music, Greek music and Ottoman court music.

The DÜNYA ensemble will participate with in an array of other traditions from India, Indonesia, the Caribbean and Africa.

FALL 2008

DÜNYA will contribute a selection of Sufi musics to an interfaith service at Boston College, alongside a group from Hebrew College directed by Cantor Scott Sokol and the Contemporary Gospel Group directed by Donell Paterson. Since the Middle Ages, Jesuit schools all over the world have marked the beginning of the academic year with a Mass of the Holy Spirit. This event will be the first event at Boston College with an interfaith program

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The focus of this program is Turkish folk music, specifically the traditional song form, deyis. Over the past ten years, the widely-renowned duo Erkan Oğur and İsmail Hakkı Demircioğlu have created a new contemporary standard for the performance of this repertoire, bringing the distinctive repertoire of the ethno-religious group from Anatolia known as Alevi and the music of the Turkish folk singer-poets (aşık) to a wider audience outside of Turkey. The DÜNYA Ensemble will supplement this duo’s unique sound in an interactive musical dialogue culminating in a collective performance.

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The Mevlevi Sufi order played an important role for many centuries in advocating for Islam in the West, where their poetry, music and whirling ceremony have always been a source of fascination. Considering the fact that Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi is one of the best selling poets in the U.S. and different groups of Mevlevis frequently tour all around the world today, we can easily say that Mevlevism is still very influential in the West. A panel of scholars discussing the current role of Mevlevism begins the program, followed by a concert of Mevlevi music.

At this Sunday morning service we will present different kinds of Turkish Sufi music with repetitive rhythms, words and melodies. The repertoire will also include the music of the Alevi-Bektaşi brotherhoods

SPRING 2008

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The city of Istanbul has been the capital of two great empires—for its first ten centuries Greek Byzantine, and beginning in 1453, for the next five centuries Ottoman Turkish. With the end of the Ottoman empire in 1923 the city lost its status as a capital, though it remains the centerpiece of a modern Turkish republic. Memories of its past—often different, frequently overlapping, sometimes conflicting—persist in the minds and in the music of its inhabitants, most of them with ties to different regions, cultures and histories of the Middle East and the Balkans.
The many layers of communal memory in this concert proceed through Greek-Orthodox music, secular Greek music, Crusader songs of the 12th century, music of the Ottoman janissary bands, Ottoman court music, Sufi ceremonial music, Turkish folk music, Sephardic Jewish songs, urban music of the Armenians, Balkan Romani (Gypsy) and Turks, and ends with modern urban popular music full of longing and protest. On their own, each piece may communicate celebration, devotion or military might, but taken together the melancholy is unmistakable.

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This concert explores the universal fascination with birds and birdsong shared by poets and musicians in both Europe and the Middle East. The concert’s Turkish title “Kuş Dili” is also an equivalent of Mantık ut-Tayr, the title of the famous 13th century Persian Sufi classic by Faruddin al Attar, known in the West as “The Conference of the Birds”.

The warbling, cooing and crying of birds as idealized song, as symbol of the divine, as amorous complaint and as the voice of nature are evoked in different ways by aristocratic Frenchmen, Italians and Ottomans and by Greek, Kurdish and Turkish villagers. Birds carry the message of religious devotion, both Christian and Muslim, and of worldly celebration and grief. On stage, the Dünya Ensemble and its guests interact with natural birdsong, conversing with each other across centuries and traditions through improvisation and a range of compositions by composers like Jean-Philippe Rameau, Dimitri Cantemir and Sultan Selim III in the 18th c., and by Olivier Messiaen, Aşık Veysel and Haci Arif Bey in the 20th.

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Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi is one of the most influential figures of Muslim mysticism (Sufism). This concert explores the rich mix of creeds and cultures of 13th century Anatolia where Rumi spent most of his life through a wide range of repertoires: Turkish sufi music (Bektaşi and Mevlevi), Byzantine (Greek-Orthodox) music, Jewish poetry with Turkish melodies, Turkish secular music, and music of the “Frenk”—European Crusaders and traders passing through the region.

The second part of the concert will follow the distinct Turkish tradition of chanting part of the Mevlid-i Şerif on important occasions. A masterpiece of Turkish literature, written in 1409, the Mevlid is a long poem commemorating the birth of the Prophet Mohammed.

featuring,

Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol (voice, ud)
Mal Barsamian (clarinet)
Eylem Başaldı (violin)
Cem Mutlu (voice, darbuka)

FALL 2007

Sept. 15, 1207 in Rumi’s Anatolia
A musical glimpse into the life and times of a great Sufi poet

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The year 2007 marks the 800th anniversary of the birth of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, one of the most influential figures of Muslim mysticism (Sufism). This concert explores the rich mix of creeds and cultures of 13th century Anatolia where Rumi spent most of his life through a wide range of repertoires: Turkish sufi music (Bektasi and Mevlevi), Byzantine (Greek-Orthodox) music, Jewish poetry with Turkish melodies, Turkish secular music, and music of the “Frenk”—European Crusaders and traders passing through the region.

In recognition of the coincidence of the beginning of both Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan on September 12th (the last time for 33 years) the concert will also follow the distinct Turkish tradition of chanting part of the Mevlid-i Serif on important occasions. A masterpiece of Turkish literature, written in 1409, the Mevlid is a long poem commemorating the birth of the Prophet Mohammed.

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“Arabesk”, for forty years the dominant popular music style in Turkey, has continued to absorb into it many strands of the Turkish musical tradition, combining it with contemporary social themes and commercial appeal in a way which still creates controversy.

Turkish classical and folk music in its most infectious form in an intimate setting with food and drink where audience interaction is expected.

SPRING 2007

A Musical Program in Memory of Hrant Dink

Prominent Boston area musicians of Armenian and Turkish descent celebrate their shared traditions

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The traditional symbols of the Tulip and the Sword in Ottoman poetry embody the inner and the outer, the refined and the coarse, the private and the public. The symbols suggest the tension between the personal and the social domains and between domestic life and war. Each set of the program features a particular repertoire and setting in Turkish life, with a distinctive pacing, dynamic level, instrumentation and emotional quality, drawing the listener into a full spectrum of traditional Turkish music: secular, sacred, city, village, classical, folk, orthodox and heterodox. This concert features a large ensemble of more than 25 performers,including members of the Mavi Dance company.

With the Dünya ince Saz Ensemble
The New England Drum and Winds Mehterhane
and Mavi Dance

This event is a part of THE BOSTON JAZZ WEEKSpecial guest: Tiger Okoshi

Free, direct, honest, clear

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The concert program will take the audiences on a unique musical journey which will feature the jazz compositions of Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol with influences from John Coltrane to the music of the Ottoman Janissary Bands.

New England Mehterhane vs. Connecticut Valley Field Music

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Ottoman Janissary Bands had a significant musical impact on Western music for many centuries. The first European marching bands combined several different size drums, brass percussion and winds, in direct imitation of the Ottoman Janissary Bands. The traditional American fife and drum band is an example of a Turkish Mehterhane influence in the New World in the 18th and 19th century. Having an American fife and drum band, as the “opponent” in this “battle” brings different generations of marching bands onto the same stage in a competition which mirrors the centuries of competition between Ottoman and European civilizations.

INTERFAITH PROGRAMS

This project is an ongoing series of interactive programs of music and conversation which aims to foster awareness, deepen dialogue, and celebrate commonalities among the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths. The inspiration for these programs is the life and work of Ali Ufki, born Wojceich Bobowski, a Polish convert to Islam, a musician and respected member of the Ottoman court, and the translator of the Bible into Turkish, who lived in the cosmopolitan environment of seventeenth century Istanbul.

SPONSORS
ITG
Seven Hills Restaurant
Gentle Movers
Picasso Travel

FALL 2006

GAZINO style FASIL

Turkish classical and folk music in its most infectious form, presented monthly in an intimate setting with food and drink where audience interaction is expected.

The Continuation of Ottoman Music

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Original compositions for instruments and voices by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol combining the idioms of Ottoman traditional music with contemporary media and methods. Mehter (Janissary music), sema (Sufi devotional music), and ince saz müziği (instrumental music) are explored producing striking new pieces which carry on and extend their traditional models. The concert will end with a composition inspired by W. A. Mozart.

Co-sponsored by the College of Fine Arts at BU. This event is funded in part by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, Inc., with additional support from ASCAP, The Virgil Thomson Fund, and with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts.

GAZINO style FASIL

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Turkish classical and folk music in its most infectious form, presented monthly in an intimate setting with food and drink where audience interaction is expected.

GAZINO style FASIL

Turkish classical and folk music in its most infectious form, presented monthly in an intimate setting with food and drink where audience interaction is expected.

European Travelers and the Ottomans

A concert dedicated to W. A. Mozart in the 250th year of his birth

A collaboration with The Boston Camerata, Joel Cohen, music director

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A dialogue between the music of Europe from the 15th to the 18th centuries and Ottoman Turkish music of the same period, inspired by the notations and accounts of early European travelers.

The concert culminates in the music of Mozart himself, the most famous of the “alla turca” composers.

GAZINO style FASIL

Turkish classical and folk music in its most infectious form, presented monthly in an intimate setting with food and drink where audience interaction is expected.

Jazz & Funk w/Mehmet Sanlıkol and Friends

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Original compositions for horns and rhythm section by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol combining the idioms of Jazz and Funk with a variety of Turkish and other world musics.

SPRING 2006

Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın: Versions of Aşık Veysel, Turkish Troubadour

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A celebration of the poetry and music of the blind Turkish folk poet and singer Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894-1973) in a wide range of original, borrowed and newly-created settings for voices and traditional instruments.

Wisdom and Turkish Humor: Karagöz, Nasreddin Hoca and Keloğlan

with Dünya Ensemble, Mavi Dance and PALS Children’s Chorus

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This concert will explore three comic archetypes from Turkey in which practical wisdom mingles with satire and Sufi philosophy. In Part I of the concert the Dünya ensemble and Mavi Dance will present the traditional music and characters of the satirical urban shadow puppet theater, Karagöz and Hacivat. The second part of the concert moves from city to town with a half composed, half improvised ballet based on a story about the famous Turkish comic archetype: Nasreddin Hoca. The concert closes with the 60-piece PALS Children’s Chorus and the Dünya ensemble performing an original composition by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol about the foolish Keloğlan, the poor village “bald boy”.

Turkish Tangos of the 1930s and 40s
A Turkish dinner, with performance and dancing to benefit the DÜNYA organization

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European influences were beginning to be felt throughout the Ottoman Empire during its final days, setting the stage for the tango rage which struck the new Turkish Republic in the late 1920s. The Golden Age of the tango during these decades will be celebrated in this rare performance, featuring tango dancers Eray Yüksek and Martina Gracanin of Bailatango .

Dinner by Fazıl’s Mediterranean Kitchen

The Ali Ufki Sacred Music Project
(At the Faith Quilts project Grand Exhibition)

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The Ali Ufki Sacred Music Project is a series of interactive programs of music and conversation. The project’s aim is to foster awareness, deepen the dialogue, and celebrate commonalities among Jews, Christians and Muslims. The inspiration for these programs is the music and life of Ali Ufki, who lived in the cosmopolitan environment of seventeenth century Istanbul.

The Music of Cyprus

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A concert bringing together Greek and Turkish musicians to present the musical traditions of the Greek and Turkish communities on the island of Cyprus.

GAZINO style FASIL

A concert of Turkish classical and folk music at the famous DIONYSOS night club and restaurant
where you are invited to join in and sing your heart out!

SPONSORS
Gentle Movers
ALP Travel
Picasso Travel
NEX Shipping
Marco Polo Moving
Mezun USA
T & C Construction

FALL 2005

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A concert featuring the close relationship of Master Drummer and Master Dancer in selected corners of the world: the Middle East, Senegal, North India and Puerto Rico.

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Original compositions for instruments and voices by Mehmet Ali Sanlikol combining the idioms of Ottoman traditional music with contemporary media and methods. Mehter (Janissary music), sema (Sufi devotional music), and ince saz müzigi (instrumental music) are explored producing striking new pieces which carry on and extend their traditional models. The concert will feature the first appearance of The New England Drum and Winds Mehterhane.

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Middle Eastern and American musicians, together with Turkish and Armenian rappers and singers,in a program of Middle Eastern Rap, Funk, and Disco music rarely heard by American audiences.

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The Ali Ufki Sacred Music Project is a series of interactive programs of music and conversation.
The project’s aim is to foster awareness, deepen the dialogue, and celebrate commonalities among
Jews, Christians and Muslims. The inspiration for these programs is the music and life of Ali Ufki,
who lived in the cosmopolitan environment of seventeenth century Istanbul.

Feel free to bring your own Rakı and Meze…
Come and join our Arifhane!

Fasıl 1 Wednesday, September 21, 7:30 pm $10
Fasıl 2 Saturday, October 29, 9:30 pm $10
Fasıl 3 Saturday, December 10, 9:30 pm $10

Location: 1353 Cambridge Street
Inman Square, Cambridge
Tel: 617 876 6060

SPRING 2005

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Turkish songs, instrumental music and poetry on love and its consequences, with girls’ chorus, soloists and an ensemble of winds, strings and percussion co-sponsored by the Turkish American Cultural Society of New England directed by Robert Labaree

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During the late 60s and early 70s in Turkey a new trend in popular music came into being which combined American Rock and Pop with Turkish village music. The synthesis of these styles produced a musical language different from the more dominant Arabesk style which represented rural migrants recently arrived in the cities. Anadolu Rock/Pop appealed instead to the more educated classes. By the 1980s the style had faded in popularity but its classics continue to be played and remembered all over Turkey.

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Ali Ufki, born Wojciech Bobowski as a Polish Christian, converted to Islam after his capture by the Ottoman Turks at the age of 30, and became renowned as a musician and translator in the imperial court. His own collection of Turkish psalms based on the Genevan Psalter provides the starting point for this celebration of the intersection of Judaism, Greek Orthodoxy, Turkish Sufism, and Protestant Christianity.

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This concert will feature the music of the Armenian composers of the late Ottoman Empire. The legendary Armenian performers of Boston will join forces with a new generation of Turkish and American musicians

SPONSORS
Gentle Movers
Mezun USA

FALL 2004

Osmanlı Musıkisinin Devamı / The Continuation of Ottoman Music

Original compositions for instruments and voices by Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol combining the idioms of Ottoman traditional music with contemporary media and methods. Mehter (Janissary music), sema(Sufi devotional music), and ince saz müziği (instrumental music) are explored producing striking new pieces which carry on and extend their traditional models.

Cumhuriyet Tangoları / Turkish Tangos of the 1930s and 40s

European influences were beginning to be felt throughout the Ottoman Empire during its final days, setting the stage for the tango rage which struck the new Turkish Republic in the late 1920s. The Golden Age of the tango during these decades will be celebrated in this rare performance coinciding with Turkish Republic Day.

Yunan ve Türk Dini Günleri II / Greek and Turkish Holy Days II

On November 22, 2003 the first Greek and Turkish Holy Days concert celebrated two very important Holy Days of Orthodox Christianity and Islam which fell on the same day: The entrance of Mary(Theotokos) into the Temple and the revelation of the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad. This year, members of the Orthodox and Muslim communities of Boston come together once again to celebrate these Holy days with Sufi and Byzantine music in mutual respect and joy.

Gazeller: The Voices of the East

During the latter days of the Ottoman Empire some of the most popular singers of commercial songs in Turkish were the hafız, individuals especially trained to improvise performances of The Holy Koran in Arabic. It was usually only the hafız who was considered up to the task of singing gazel, the highly prized free-rhythm improvisation on secular love poetry, a practice which has a number of parallels in Arabic and Greek music, as well. This concert will feature a dialogue between Turkish, Arabic and Greek musicians in the improvised love song tradition they share.

SPRING 2004

Cazda Türkiye, Türkiye’de Caz / Turkey in Jazz, Jazz in Turkey

An exploration of the mutual influences of Turkish music and Jazz in the work of a variety of Turkish and American musicians

In the zikir ceremonies of the Turkish sufi orders, repeated musical phrases and texts create a group experience which is both contemplative and ecstatic. In this concert, the Turkish zikir takes its place alongside African-American Gospel music and Haitian vodoun, which also rely on repetitive rhythms, words and melodies to pull us inward and upward.

Hocalarımız ile Sohbetler / Conversations with Our Teachers

A concert in which performers of Turkish classical and folk music pay their respects to their sources. Live performers interact with each other and with recordings of three generations of revered musicians, both the famous and the anonymous.

Ali Ufki’nin Mezmurları / The Psalms of Ali Ufki 

Ali Ufki, born Albert Bobowski in 1610, was a Polish Christian who converted to Islam after his capture by the Ottoman Turks, becoming renowned as a court musician, as a notator of Ottoman classical music, and as a Bible translator. In this concert of sacred music, Ali Ufki’s own settings of the psalms in Ottoman classical style will receive a rare performance.

Arabesk

Arabesk, for forty years the dominant popular music style in Turkey, has continued to absorb into it many strands of the Turkish musical tradition, combining it with contemporary social themes and commercial appeal in a way which still creates controversy.

SPONSORS
Gentle Movers
The Turkish American Cultural Society of New England
The MIT Turkish Student Association
The Graduate and Professional Student Association at NU