THE FESTIVAL BEGINS

The 8th Mersin International Music Festival will be held between the 21st of May and 2nd of June, 2009

Among the performers at the 8th Mersin International Music Festival will be Fazıl Say, one of the most prestigious pianists in Turkey and across the world, Al Di Meola, who has rocked the music world with his jazz-flamenco sound for the past quarter century, the Carmina Burana ballet to be performed by the State Opera and Ballet of Ankara, the well-known 17th and 18th century music ensemble Europa Galante, and the famous British a cappella group "Swingle Singers".

For the first time this year, the Maiden's Castle, Mersin's most widely-known landmark, will be hosting the opening concert by Fazıl Say. The closing concert will follow the tradition, and will be hosted at the Museum of St. Paul in Tarsus. The famous violinist Fabio Biondi will perform at the closing concert.

OUR FESTIVAL

Started years ago with much flinching, the Mersin International Music Festival is now firmly rooted at its eighth year. This development owes to the great collaboration over the festival, and to the support of our sponsors who are aware of the importance of the festival, who love Mersin and want to see its rising. The economic downturn across the world has its repercus-sions in Turkey, and the sponsors of our festival feel the burden of the situation. Neverthe-less, they contributed to the festival despite all hardship, and enabled our festival to come up with a rich and varied program. We seek to preserve this great window that opens to the world. An opera is the pride of a city, and this is manifest in many cities across the world. The same applies to music festivals. There are cities in the world that are only known through their festivals. These windows opening to the world are important because they bring the world's culture to where you are, and have great influence as such. People can be influenced by art only by experiencing it firsthand. As such, we must do all that we can to ensure our festival reaches out to not just a select group of people, but to the entire population of Mersin, or even the Çukurova region. All branches of art, especially music among them, are a matter of habits. Once you have grown accustomed to a style of music, your entire life will be shaped around it. You may thus be limited to the confines of arabesque music or tavern tunes. This is why, if we want our citizens to gain a marked sense and culture of civilization, we must fully support our two institutions, the International Music Festival and the State Opera.
Nevit KODALLI, Artist of the State

Faik BURAKGAZI
Chairman, Festival Executive Board

Dear Art Lovers,
The region where Mersin is located bears the traces of thousands of years of history and cultural heritage. The historian Fernand Braudel mentions this richness in his book:

"What is this Mediterranean? All of a multitude of things. Not one landscape, but innumerable land-scapes. Not one sea, but many seas following each other. Not one civilization, but many civilizations all flourishing on top of one another."

Mersin and its region are indeed laden with the richness expressed in these lines. Our city is the envy of many others with its cultural and artistic output, and the Mersin International Music Festival is one of these outputs. Bringing polyphonic universal music to the denizens of the city and contributing to the growth of dia-log between cultures, the festival is already among the select few festivals in Turkey and across Europe despite being only eight years old. The contribution of the festival to the development of the perception of esthetics in the society and the awareness of the need to preserve artistic and cultural assets is also notable. Perhaps the crown jewel in this year's festival is its opening concert at the Kız-kalesi island castle.

While it is no secret that Turkey is in the grasp of a financial crisis along with the rest of the world, Mersin continues its tradition of reaching out and touching art.

We are proud of the collaboration achieved in our city for this purpose, as we all know that culture and arts are the sufferers of the most severe blow in any eco-nomic turndown. We also know that art is the fulcrum is reaching the equilib-rium between economic and social life.

I would like to thank every stakeholder in the city, first and foremost to Hüseyin Aksoy, the Governor of Mersin, for their support to the Mersin International Music Festival. Special thanks must go to the late Hanri Atat, one of the founders of our festival, and to everyone else who has contributed to the festival with their invaluable efforts until now. My colleagues in the Artistic Advisory Board, the Festival Executive Board and the association; this would not be possible if it were not for you. I am glad you are here, and I am glad to live in Mersin!

FESTIVAL PROGRAM - 2009

The Executive Board of the Mersin International Music Festival reserves the right to make changes to event dates, artists and locations.