Organised as part of the 26th Istanbul Jazz Festival and sponsored by SOCAR Turkey, ‘Vitrin: Showcase for Contemporary Music from Turkey’ brought successful local musicians and ensembles together with leading representatives of the international music industry. Vitrin culminated in the presentation of SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award to two most outstanding performers; No Land and Tolgahan Çoğulu & Sinan Ayyıldız.
Istanbul Jazz Festival organised the Vitrin showcase for the third time in its 26th edition to support successful contemporary music acts from Turkey and nearby geography in their international ventures. Aligned with the festival’s mission of expanding intercultural dialogue, ‘Vitrin: Showcase for Contemporary Music from Turkey’ brought together 33 artists and ensembles from Turkey and 29 international delegates and journalists from various countries over the course of the festival from 3 to 6 July 2019. Among the 33 artists and ensembles, two bands were selected by the international delegates to receive further encouragement with SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award that involves financial support for their upcoming international tours.
Speaking of the SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award, İKSV General Manager Görgün Taner said: ‘One of the most important goals of İKSV is to support artists and musicians who contribute to cultural production. The Vitrin showcase that we have been carrying out in cooperation with SOCAR Turkey for three years during Istanbul Jazz Festival constitutes one of the most successful examples of our work and keeps supporting musicians from Turkey. With Vitrin, we are facilitating the introduction of musicians from Turkey to the world and their reach to a wider audience. We are bringing them together with music professionals from all over the world. SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award is one of the most important outcomes of the project. With this award, we are supporting worldwide tours of successful musicians from Turkey. I believe that Vitrin would help and contribute to our country’s musicians in their forthcoming efforts.’
SOCAR Turkey, Chief Corporate Communications Officer Murat LeCompte, stated that their aim is to support successful musicians with ‘Vitrin: Showcase for Contemporary Music from Turkey’, and congratulated the winners of SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award: “I congratulate Tolgahan Çoğulu & Sinan Ayyıldız and the band of No Land which also includes a musician from our company’s homeland, Azerbaijan. We increase the cultural interaction between Azerbaijan and Turkey through supporting art and add value to both communities while we continue our operations to strengthen Turkey’s economy. We take opportunity to help young and talented musicians for them to appear in the international arena in such a meaningful event which brings us together through the common feelings music creates. We are proud of contributing to Turkey’s culture and music as much as to Turkey’s economy.”
No Land and Tolgahan Çoğulu & Sinan Ayyıldız received the SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award
Among this year’s performers at Vitrin, two successful bands of the contemporary music scene in Turkey, No Land and Tolgahan Çoğulu & Sinan Ayyıldız were presented with SOCAR Turkey Silk Road Tour Support Award, a monetary award of 5,000 Euros. Both bands will receive a support of 2,500 Euros for their international tours planned for the next year.
NO LAND
No Land comprises of Azeri, Iranian, and Turkish musicians and has selected its moniker as reference to their varied geographic and cultural origins. Established in 2012 by Sahand Lesani, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, and Kamil Hajiyev, No Land incorporated Çağatay Vural, Can Kalyoncu, Hazal Akkerman, Yağız Nevzat İpek, and Oğuzcan Bilgin in 2013. The band published their debut album Aramızda in 2016. Most of their lyrics are written by Vugar Hasani.
TOLGAHAN ÇOĞULU & SİNAN AYYILDIZ
The first prize winner at Georgia Tech Margaret Guthman Musical Instrument Competition in 2014, Tolgahan Çoğulu, designed his “Adjustable Microtonal Guitar” in 2008. His first CD with microtonal guitar, Atlas, was published in 2012 by Kalan Music. His microtonal and fretless guitar duo and lecture recital, “Microtonal Guitar Music”, has taken him to many festivals and universities in 33 countries. Tolgahan is building a repertoire for microtonal guitar with more than forty composers involved at this point. In 2013, he became an Associate Professor in Guitar at Istanbul Technical University’s Turkish Music State Conservatory, where he had founded the classical guitar department in 2010 and the world’s first microtonal guitar department in 2014.
Sinan Ayyıldız, after being involved in countless albums, television series and movies as either a music director, arranger or performer, formed the band Etni-ka in 2008 and their debut album was released one year later. He was the music director and arranger of the album. In 2009 Sinan Ayyıldız was invited to the Stereognosis project recordings in the USA, a project which brings together musicians from various different countries. He recorded two albums with this project: The Stereognosis Hybrid album was released in 2011 and The Stereognosis Departure album was released in 2019. He continues his music work at his own recording studio in Ankara. He serves as assistant professor in Ankara Music and Fine Arts University.
Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) under the sponsorship of Garanti BBVA, the 26th Istanbul Jazz Festival was held between 29 June and 18 July 2019.
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