21 April 6pm
Concert Advanced Workshops on Ottoman Classical Music.
At the end of the workshop there will be a public concert in which theparticipants will perform some pieces studied during the workshop.

Free entrance

Info
Istituto Interculturale di Studi Musicali Comparati -
Tel. +39 041 2710357
email musica.comparata@cini.it

The Intercultural Institute of ComparativeMusic Studies (IISMC) at the Giorgio Cini Foundation will launch a newprogramme in 2012: Advanced Workshops on Ottoman Classical Music. The workshops are intended formusicians and musicologists who wish to further their instrumental andmusicological knowledge in this important field of traditional music. Theteacher as well as artistic and cultural director of the advanced workshops isKudsi Erguner, an internationally-renowned musician and musicologist who, forseveral years now, has been teaching courses of ney flute at the IISMC,assisted by the ethnomusicologist Giovanni De Zorzi, an expert on traditionalmusic for the area in question.

As part of this project, which will run forseveral years, the IISMC has announced that six scholarships are available for 2012 for professional orsemi-professional musicians, specialised in Ottoman classical music, or wishingto explore the tradition further. The aim of the scholarships is to form amusical ensemble which will focus on some specific aspects of Ottoman classicalmusic (repertoires, composers and manuscripts) chosen by Kudsi Erguner andGiovanni De Zorzi. The scholarship consists of hospitality on the island of SanGiorgio, payment of travelling expenses and the possibility to enjoy the newopportunities offered by the Vittore Branca Center and its recently openedResidence at the Giorgio Cini Foundation.

The first workshop due to be held in April 2012  will be devoted to the study of pieces by composers fromvarious religious and ethnic communities in the Ottoman Empire (Turkish, Greek,Jewish, Armenian and even Italian) and in various historical periods (from the17th to the 20th century) with the aim of highlighting the multiethnic,multicultural character of the Ottoman music tradition throughout its history.At the end of the workshop there will be a public concert in which theparticipants will perform some pieces studied during the workshop.

 

The name of the workshops –  Bîrûn –  has been inspired by the outer court at the Topkapi palacein Istanbul. After the Ottoman capture of Constantinople in 1453, the SultanMehmet II, known as “Fatih the Conqueror”, began construction of the ImperialPalace in 1465. This building then became known as the Saray (from the Arabic sarây, “palace”, see also Mozart’s“seraglio”) or Bâb-i ‘Ali, the “Sublime Porte” which for centuries was thesultans’ favourite residence and the centre of Ottoman artistic and culturallife. The Saray was divided into an outer part and an inner part and thisarchitectural division is reflected in its institutions: the Birûn-i Hümâyûnadministered life in the outer court, while the Enderûn-i Hümâyûn dealt withlife in the inner court of the palace, which included the throne room, haremand sultan's private apartments. In both sections there was a mekteb palace school which providedmusical education, as well as teaching poetry, calligraphy and the art of theminiature –  those fine arts thatmade the Ottoman world so famous.

The project for an advanced course of Ottomanclassical music at the Giorgio Cini Foundation was thus inspired by the idea ofthe Birûn, the outer palace school that although external was close to theheart of Ottoman culture, just as Venice was a kind of European outer court onthe grounds of its thousand-year relations withByzantium/Constantinople/Istanbul.

Contacts 
Istituto Interculturale di Studi Musicali Comparati - Fondazione Giorgio Cinionlus – Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, 30124 Venezia Tel. +39 0412710357 –musica.comparata@cini.it