Sunday! Fun Day!

Many things going on!

We had a long weekend rehearsal last Sunday. It's almost a full day experience and spending time together, singing and getting better with very breath is a wonderful feeling.
When I come home after those rehearsals, I feel very tired yet very satisfied. All I want is to stay silent and tuck myself in my comfy couch, put on my red blanket and watch some movie. With a hearty soup of course!
This is exactly what I did this Sunday too.

We are working on a piece of Italian composer and conductor Lorenzo Donati. It's written on a poem of Spanish poet, Nobelist, Juan Ramon Jimenez: NOCHE which means, NIGHT. It's composed a cappella for 16 voices and it's the hardest piece we had to learn so far.  Or at least this is what our maestro keeps saying all the time! While singing it, many questions pop up in my head, such as what was the motivation behind composing this poem and how on earth did Donati come up with the idea of 16 voices!!! And what was he drinking while composing it! It may not be THAT difficult when you learn your own part but the difficulty lies in getting those 16 voices together. And that's the maestro's job! I convey my deepest sympathies to Burak!

We have now singing lessons in the next few weeks. I will not be available for them unfortunately because I'll travel to Salzburg, as tour leader, for the Mozart Week Concerts.

I look forward to our next long weekend rehearsal:))

Happy 2019!

Hi Everyone,

I don't know what to say!
I am sorry that I haven't been here for a very long time!
But I have a good excuse: I am BACK to School!
YES!!!
After a break of 30 years, now I am back to college, or Istanbul University, Faculty of Letters and I am studying American Culture and Literature! It's such a joy to be back to school!
So the autumn was quite busy not only for this school adventure but for my choral activities as well.
I attend courses at the university, three days a week, weekends are busy with my choir and I am also having my daily routines such as shopping, cooking and visiting friends, reading, producing my radio programme... The thing is that I am loving this! This energy, this whole motion in every second of my life, is rejuvenating! And I feel blessed for all, especially now that I am a woman of full 50!!!
I can't make promises, but I will try to write more often here, on my blog!

What do we have this year?

Well, this years repertoir is full of new musical adventures. We have pieces from Renaissance as well as contemporary, almost shocking pieces to perform. It all seems impossible to learn at the beginning but once we practice together during our rehearsals, everything comes together. This is of course thanks to the abilities of our dear maestro, Burak.

My favourite song this season is a Renaissance piece from Johann Herman Schein: Die mit traenen saen. Being a lover of the ancient music, I find this song spectacular and feel a great sense of joy while singing. Honestly I wish we had more songs of this era to sing. We also have some Romantic pieces, which are beautiful but don't move my heart as the Renaissance ones do.

Summer in full speed

Hi everybody!
The summer is hot and I hate it!
Yess! Honestly, I don't like summer months. I's hot and humid and takes away all my energy but thanks God, I have new pieces to study and learn. And where I am now, is a good place to be during summer months as it's windy during the hottest hours of the day.
And here's a short summary of what happened lately:
After we ended the season, I was really tired and needed a little break. So right after the last concert in İzmir, I took a bus to Bodrum, where we have a little stone house and simply unplugged myself. We stayed for some days there and that was really heaven!

In Istanbul, on the other hand, we had our end of season meeting as a whole choir and that also was a good one for we discussed about what to do next. And the biggest outcome of that meeting was the decision of applying to one of the greatest choral competitions of the world: Marktoberdorf Choral Competition in Germany! So from now on we will have another busy season and that's almost certain. I, on the other hand, am not sure if I am good enough to sing in that competition. So I'll see myself in the light of our rehearsals and decide about that. Our maestro has to cut some of us back anyway for the simple reason that the choirs can not be more that 32 singers. And we are 40! And plus! So some of us must be left home anyway. I'll see, we'll see...
We are starting our rehearsals coming Saturday! Tomorrow! Mid July! We'll have a full weekend to sing! And I can not wait for that! I'll miss the Saturday's one but still that's fine! I'll catch up the next day!
We have lots of plans, new projects and interesting ideas. Our maestro came up with really inspiring suggestions and this is why I love him so much. He never stops! His life is music and you can read that on his lovely young face!
So now I am waiting for our summer rehearsals with pleasure.
Bye for now!

End of Season... Is it?

Rezonans in Varna

I know that it has been a very long break!
But after all that ı've been through, I needed this pause. I needed to stop, to think and digest all that I have seen, lived and felt.
This season, this winter, spring and summer has been a fantastic time in my life. I've learned so much, grown even stronger and learned to deal with my shorthcomings as a new chorist. But the path is a long one if I am determined to stay on this course. Time will tell!

Varna Competition!
Such a great experience! A good way to test yourself on international arena. To get to know yourself better under the spotlights. And better than anything else, getting in touch with other choirs, with other traditions, with other systems.
What I've learned from this competition is hard work always pays off and amateur doesn't mean un-professional!

My friends Eren and Arda are on stage waving our flag

Rezonans Mixed Choir is on stage

I watched with great admiration two choirs from Philippines, Imusicapella Chamber Choir and The Philippines Meistersingers!

They were absolutely great, they won great prizes and I thought they absolutely deserved all prizes.


Later on, I started to read about them and found out that they sing all over Europe, in festivals, in cultural weeks etc. And not only Europe! USA, Washington DC, Kennedy Center! I wouldn't call them amatuers at all! And hey! What's the definition of amateur anyway? But still, I am happy that they were there so I, once again, realized that performing music is an amazing adventure and it can take you anywhere!

Our young and very talented maestro, Burak Onur Erdem, received a special prize. It has a long name so I'll do copy/paste:

Special prize awarded by the Bulgarian choral union for choir with brightest creative achievement of the Competition

We had our won bus thanks to our sponsor, FEST TRAVEL

After Varna, we came back to out own territory and the next weekend we sang in İzmir, at the Mozart Academy Choirs Festival to close our season. It was another delightful experience.

On our way to İzmir

At the back of our bus in İzmir, thanking our sponsor Fest Travel

And as the title for this post I wrote ''End of Season'' but I don't think that it will be a long break because fist of all, next weekend we have our general assembly to discuss about this year and about the future plans...

At the end of July, we'll go to Talinn for Europa Cantat Festival.

And our maestro said that the rehearsals are going to start at the second half of September... So surely it's not the end of anything, it's just a little break! For which I am very happy anyway!

See you soon!

Next Two Days

Today I have been thinking a lot:
What a wonderful winter and spring was this year!
Winter was a ''full time preparation'' period whereas spring has been and still is a time for sharing what we've prepared. What a joy! And an even better summer is just around the corner... With EUROPA CANTAT, the biggest choral event of Europe.

And this weekend:
Tomorrow: SANSEV International Choirs Festival. We're on stage!

After tomorrow (Sunday): Open Rehearsal... We'll host our audience in the very place where we regularly perform our rehearsals. In Istanbul Technical University's Maçka building is the center for advanced studies in music. On top floor there is Usmanbaş Hall which takes its name from İlhan Usmanbaş, one of the leading composers of our music history. And there, in that hall, we are going to perform our rehearsal, in front of an audience, interested in attending this interesting experience. I love attending rehearsals of especially orchestras.  I did it many times! It's very interesting... When I was in high school, I used to skip school and go to the rehearsal of Istanbul State Orchestra. Since then, I did this in different orchestras as well... Such as New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra... It's such a wonderful experience... Of course I have NEVER attended ANY choir rehearsal as a listener... I think there are many affinities between the two...Choirs and orchestras...

News from my progress:
I think I memorized Zvedvi of Emil Tabakov. I think! Not sure yet... I keep forgetting some syllables in the middle part of the song. It's like a tongue twister, I swear!

6th SANSEV Istanbul Polyphonic Choirs Festival

Things are moving fast!

We are almost ready for the next adventure, 6th SANSEV Polyphonic Choirs Festival, which is going to take place in TÜRKAN SAYLAN CULTURAL CENTER, in Maltepe, next week. This is an important event for our choral world here in Turkey. Many choirs from different cities and backgrounds come on stage and sing in front of a significant audience. And sometimes this is the first ''on stage'' experience for some of them. I strongly think that, the mission of the festivals, is to give the opportunity to those new/young/amateur choirs to step on stage and sing with an audience. Because singing on stage is a whole new dimension, a way of testing yourself and your abilities, to get to know yourself better and eventually overcome your shortcomings.

If you want to learn more about the festival, here is the link:
https://sansevfest.com/istkorofest-en/


Mrs. Nursel Öncül, SANSEV Association President says:
We are joyfull, excited, hopeful and proud to carry the 6th SANSEV Istanbul Polyphonic Chorus Festival that we are organizing to an international dimension.

So I extend my congratulations and appreciation to her and to the committee...

Next weekend, we will be on stage, on Saturday 5th, at 19.45...

Our maestro is thinking about an open rehearsal on Sunday too. I'll post here when things are fixed.

Bye for now...

After the Concert

Woowww!
What a concert!
What a programme!
16 songs, from renaissance to our days!
Very nice experience and definitely a kind of power test!
And we did it!
We AND the audience DID it!

I don't know where to start from...

Our maestro wanted us to be ready at the Church of Santa Maria Draperis at 14.30 for one last rehearsal. Then news were updated, the chamber choir at that hour and the mixed choir at 15.15... So I went there at 15.00ish... The Chamber was on stage singing... Hearing them, I remembered the first time I heard them singing in St. Esprit Cathedral, in Istanbul. Oh boy!!! That was love at fist sight! That concert of some years ago is THE reason why I am here now! That's the reason of my hard work, my sweat and tears:))

Then came our time and our maestro invited all to the stage. First, where to stand, how to get positioned on stage, what to do and not to do etc... All the things that now come so natural to me but were so intimidating at the beginning. We started to sing, the church was open to public so we had some visitors, an on spot audience... People came in curiously, sat on the benches in silence, looking astonished with this unexpected extra within the church. Even little kids were unnaturally quite, while we were singing the most unusual songs for the present audience, yet they seemed happy.

After the rehearsal, we had some time off and I went out to have a cup of coffee with some of the girls. Coffee turned into avocado salad and tea...

The concert was to start at 18.00. We started at 18.06, needed to wait for some minutes for the audience to calm down and concentrate. Then we walked on stage with a welcoming applause and I, being very excited as always, forgot to stand towards the audience as our maestro said during the last rehearsal. Thanks GOD, my dear Güneş just next to me and always very careful about every detail, started to whisper into my ear ''to the audience, to the audience''. And I slowly got into the right position. BUT, in the second part of the concert, I did it AGAIN!!!! Am I stupid or what?!

It was very successful except (according to me) one song, the famous Zvezdi of Tabakov. I told you before, it's NOT an easy peasy! We will have more practice in the next weeks and we MUST learn that song perfectly.  And I can assure you, we will master the song before we start our journey to Varna.

It was an important evening too because we had a representative of our transportation sponsor, Fest Travel, as one of our VIP guests. She was soo happy at the end, with tears in her beautiful eyes, repeating '' wonderful, wonderful, I never thought that music could make feel what I felt this evening''. I didn't have the courage to ask what she felt, because sometimes words are not enough to describe certain things. I simply left it unspoken, still knowing deep inside what she meant. And here she is:

And we also had guests from another possible sponsor and after the concert, they gave us a really BIG hug! They were so impressed by what they saw there. They too said: We were NOT expecting to see such thing!

And I had my Portuguese class students there as my personal guests, and they were very nice with the flowers and a special gift! But the real gift to me was their presence there... And here they are:

After the concert, my dear husband took me and our niece to dinner, which was very nice... And this is my beautiful niece:

Overall, when I came back home, I was a tired but a very very happy chorist!