THE ISLAND of Cyprus is known for its multicultural structure, a historical legacy of thousands of years of inter-civilizational interaction. For long years, Greeks and Turks have lived on this island together, enjoying and disliking similar things... Read

 

"Kıbrıs'ın Sesi", Kıbrıslı Rum ve Türk müzisyenlerin, Kıbrıs’ın geleneksel müziklerinden yaptığı seçkilerden oluşan bir albüm. İstanbul doğumlu bir Kıbrıslı Türk olan müzisyen Mehmet Ali Şanlıkol ile Lefkoşa doğumlu Kıbrıslı Rum müzisyen Theodoulos Vakanas, yanlarına iki ana karadan (Yunanistan ve Türkiye) müzisyenleri de alarak kaydetmişler bu albümü... Read

 

That line, from Dunya's 2006 concert production of "Wisdom and Turkish Humor", sums up the organization's raison d'etre and extraordinary appeal. Directror Mehmet Ali Sanlikol founded the organization with Robert Labaree in 2004 to "find creative ways to show paradoxes found in parallel, but contradictory, cultures as Sanlikol puts it... Read

 

The concert began with a rumble of drums, followed by a blare of trumpets and shawms of the sort that must have terrified Vienna when the Ottomans besieged the city in 1683. It ended with a laughing arrangement of Mozart's ”Rondo Alla turca” written a century later... Read

”I Will Survive” in Turkish? A lute slicing through a funk tune? Armenian rap?
Get ready for Middle Eastern Rap, Funk and Disco Night at Ryles in Cambridge tonight.
”We try to show all kinds of world cultures next to each other,” said Mehmet Ali Sanlikol about the organization he founded, Dunya, and the shows it presents. ”I choose to use a Turkish lens, not a Western lens...
Read (Boston Herald Article )

Since last year music enthusiasts in Boston have been able to enjoy themselves at a variety of music concerts, randing from Sufi music, from Anatolian Rock to the songs of famous...
Read (Turk of America Article)

The haunting melodies of ancient sacred chants set to the rythmic beat of a Djembredrum transported nearly 100 attendees at an interfaith concert on Wednesday back in time to ...
Read (Jewish Advocate Paper )

JAZZ. The Young Turks are notable for being fronted by an actual Turk: pianist/vocalist/composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, who has been in town since 1993 studying ...
Read (Phoenix Web, Phoenix Paper )

Arabesk is like rap music - brewed in the ghetto as a response to issues of social justice but increasingly popular. Its popularization, however, says Mehmet Sanlikol, a doctoral student at the New England Conservatory, lacks depth and meaning. Sanlikol directs the 300 Years of Turkish Music series, for which ...
Read (Weekly Dig, scanned version, .doc version )

The sounds Mehmet Ali Sanlikol grew up with in his native Istanbul became as faint as a whisper when the pianist immersed himself in jazz as an 18-year-old in 1993. That's the year Sanlikol won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music, moved across the Atlantic ...
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