![In Search of Hasan Ferid Alnar Concert Accompanying [Sound] Listening to the World](http://data.docslib.org/img/7c909b0092b4a74b766be78ed56606e1-1.webp)
Press release Berlin, 6 June 2018
Music between Empires and Nations – In Search of Hasan Ferid Alnar Concert accompanying [sound] Listening to the World
The Humboldt Forum is to present a concert of classical and contemporary Turkish music on Friday, 29 June 2018, at 7 pm at Heimathafen Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße 141, 12043 Berlin. The renowned kanun player Tahir Aydoğdu from Ankara and the ORBIS Quartett from Berlin will jointly follow in the footsteps of composer Hasan Ferid Alnar. The concert will be introduced in German by Erol Köymen, musicologist at the University of Chicago. The evening is part of the programme accompanying the exhibition [sound] Listening to the World.
Hasan Ferid Alnar (1906–1978) was one of the first composers to blend classical Turkish with classical western-European music. Along with Cemal Reşit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Necil Kâzım Akses he was one of the celebrated “Turkish five”, a ground-breaking group of young composers in the 1920s and 1930s. Like his four contemporaries, Hasan Ferid Alnar was among the first Turkish composers to have trained not only in Turkey but also in western-European cities such as Vienna (taught by Joseph Marx) and Paris. It was probably while Hasan Ferid Alnar was visiting Berlin that recordings of his music were made for the city’s Phonogramm-Archiv, which is currently held in the Ethnologisches Museum and is set to move to the Humboldt Forum in late 2019. His works are based on Turkish folk and traditional music which he innovatively combined with classical western-European music in various musical genres. In modern-day Turkey, however, Hasan Ferid Alnar’s music receives very little attention.
Tahir Aydoğdu (born 1959 in Istanbul), a virtuoso of the kanun both in traditional Turkish musical genres and in jazz, has long followed in the footsteps of Hasan Ferid Alnar, both geographically and musically. This concert, which he has devised for the Humboldt Forum in conjunction with musicologist Erol Köymen, includes several of Alnar’s classical Ottoman masterpieces for the solo kanun, a composition for the kanun and string quartet, and selected works by contemporary Turkish composers. The kanun, a precursor to the European zither, is one of the archetypal instruments for playing classical Turkish and
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Arabic music. In the thirteenth century it was thought to be the main musical instrument used by the Andalusian Moors, who brought it from the Arab region to Europe. Aydoğdu will be accompanied by the Berlin-based ORBIS Quartett, with Tilman Hussla and Meike-Lu Schneider on violin, Kundri Lu Emma Schäfer on viola and Leo Schmidt on cello, as well as double bass player Samuel Ortega, who is supporting the quartet for this trans-European concert. Founded in 2014, the ORBIS Quartett has acquired a reputation for its performances outside classical music venues. It brings its music – a classical repertoire that also features jazz and pop arrangements and even free improvisation – to audiences in bars, clubs, train stations and on the streets.
The sound archives presented in the exhibition [sound] Listening to the World were inspired by the vision of identifying and exploring cultures through their sounds, and as a result today they also reveal much about the reciprocal exchange between different cultures. In this respect, the live concert will give the audience first-hand experience of how music is transformed and changed by transcultural developments. The Phonogramm-Archiv of Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum, the Lautarchiv of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and the AMAR Foundation in Beirut have all been crucial in staging the exhibition [sound] Listening to the World, allowing visitors to hear and experience the fascination of sounds in all their tonal variety. When the two Berlin collections, which are famous for their audio recordings from all over the world, are united in the Humboldt Forum in late 2019, they will add an aural dimension that incorporates linguistic diversity – key aspects of its unique character, which can already be experienced in the exhibition. It will also be possible to explore a number of soundworlds and sound cultures thanks to an extensive educational and events programme held throughout Berlin between now and September.
When the Humboldt Forum opens its doors in late 2019 it will mark the establishment of a whole new cultural quarter in the very heart of Berlin. By bringing together outstanding collections containing major exhibits – among them spiritual objects and artworks from Asia, Africa and America – and coupling these with a variety of cultural activities, the Humboldt Forum is seeking to inspire new insights into the worlds of the past, present and future. The participating actors are the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) with the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kulturprojekte Berlin with Stadtmuseum Berlin, and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss taking on a leading role. The Humboldt Forum has already developed a highly visible presence throughout Berlin with its diverse programme of exhibitions, discussions, performances, workshops, films and artistic interventions.
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Music between Empires and Nations –In Search of Hasan Ferid Alnar
Date Friday, 29 June 2018 Time 7 pm Doors open 6:30 pm Duration 90 minutes plus intermission Venue Heimathafen Neukölln, Karl-Marx-Straße 141, 12043 Berlin
Tickets 10 euros (concessions 5 euros) available in advance at www.heimathafen-neukoelln.de, by telephone on 030/56 82 13 40, and by email at [email protected] or at the venue on the same day.
Accreditation Journalists are requested to secure mandatory accreditation from Michael Mathis, [email protected].
Words of welcome Stefan Schmidtke, Humboldt Forum Introduction Erol Köymen, University of Chicago Concert Tahir Aydoğdu, ORBIS Quartett (Tilman Hussla, Meike-Lu Schneider, Kundri Lu Emma Schäfer, Leo Schmidt + Samuel Ortega) Language German with English translation
[sound] Listening to the World Runs until 16 September 2018 Opening times 10 am to 7 pm daily Venue Humboldt-Box, Schlossplatz 5, 10178 Berlin Entrance Free of charge Further information about the exhibition and the accompanying programme is available at humboldtforum.com/laut
Organizer Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss in cooperation with the Ethnologisches Museum of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin, Kulturprojekte Berlin and Stadtmuseum Berlin as well as the AMAR Foundation in Beirut, and with the support of the Arab Fund For Arts and Culture AFAC.
Press contact Michael Mathis Press Officer Cultural and Digital Communication +49 151 1617 97 27, [email protected], humboldtforum.com/presse
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