The 3rd International Istanbul Choir Festival begins... The polyphony of the city

The International Istanbul Choir Festival will be held for the third time this year between July 3-6 at the Cemal Reşit Rey (CRR) Concert Hall, Gazhane Museum, Beşiktaş Square and Anadolu Hisarı. In its third year, the festival will bring Istanbul's polyphonic and multicultural life to the stage, while also bringing together Türkiye's musical mosaic.

The festival, organized by the IMM Orchestra, affiliated with IMM Culture, has a wide range of 24 choirs. There is a rich variety including Ruhi Su Dostlar Choir, Lozan Mübadilleri Vakfı Choir, LÖSEV Gönülden Sesler Choir, ITU 250th Year Turkish Music Choir, Aydın Doğan Fine Arts High School. The festival, whose general art director is Kübra Şenyaylar, will feature concerts as well as workshops and talk programs.

The festival will be open to public viewing, and free tickets for concerts at CRR can be purchased from the Istanbul Senin app. The festival program can be accessed from the social media accounts and website of IMM Culture and IMM Orchestras.

THEY STAGED IT FOR THE FIRST TIME

The festival has a pleasant surprise this year. After the applications made through an open call, 110 children who were selected for the IMM Istanbul Children's Choir will perform their first performance on Thursday, July 3rd at 19:45 at CRR. We spoke with IMM Orchestras Director Ozan Bircan about the festival and the IMM Children's Choir.

Ozan Bircan said that the festival, which is in its third year, has raised the standards in the city's choral music culture, emphasizing that choirs reflecting different cultures have come together, thus highlighting interaction.

'THIS CITY IS MOSTLY FOR CHILDREN'

Bircan summarizes the establishment goal of the IMM Children's Choir as follows: “The IMM Istanbul Children's Choir emerged with the aim of providing a multifaceted experience that aims to leave permanent and positive effects on the individual and social levels. It aims to support the children who participate from different socio-cultural environments of our city to develop social awareness, self-expression, self-confidence, teamwork, friendship, focus, breath control and stress-anxiety balance, language development and aesthetic sensitivity by increasing their general musical skills and to raise them as future cultural ambassadors and artists. Because in Istanbul, the right to culture, the right to the city and this city are mostly children's.”

'THEIR EXCITEMENT IS EYE-FILLING'

Bircan, who responded to the question of how the rehearsals went with the words “Awesome”, described the energy of the 110 children who will be on stage for the first time as follows: “Their excitement fills our eyes. In order to ensure inclusiveness, the little choristers who worked separately with the same repertoire on both sides of the city came together for their first concert and worked meticulously. Now they are waiting for us for their first concert.”

MUSIC EVERYWHERE

The festival spreads to different points of the city from CRR to Beşiktaş Square. Bircan explains the reason for this as follows: “Although performing choral music brings with it some technical limitations in terms of space, we care more about reaching Istanbulites than the capacity of the halls. Because choral music definitely contributes to the structure of a society that hears, understands and talks to each other.”