ENSEMBLE BÎRÛN

Director and ney flute: Kudsi Erguner

Armenian Composers in Ottoman Classical Music

Intersezioni Musicali CD IM 02

Nota Edizioni, Udine, 2014

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The second CD in the Intersezioni Musicali series presents the results of the Bîrun Ottoman classical music advanced workshop entitled “Armenian Composers in Ottoman Classical Music”, held at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in April 2013. The teacher and artistic and cultural director of the project was Kudsi Erguner, an eminent musician, composer and musicologist, who relied on the collaboration of Giovanni De Zorzi, an ethnomusicology researcher at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice. By means of a public call for applications, six workshop scholarships were awarded and an international ensemble subsequently formed. For a week, under Kudsi Erguner’s guidance, the ensemble focused on the single theme of Armenian composers active in the world of Ottoman classical music from the 17th to the 20th century. The CD includes recordings of pieces selected from workshop rehearsals and the final concert. They feature compositions by major Armenian musicians who flourished in Istanbul, such as Murad Celebi, Hampatzum Limonciyan, Bimen Sen (Bimen Der Gazaryan), Manok Aga Manokyan and Tatos Enkersciyan Efendi.

Intersezioni musicali is a new series which the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies is promoting in collaboration with the publishers Nota Edizioni. As the series title suggests, “Musical Intersections” sets out to present studies and research on music from various parts of the world on a cultural and musical scene, at a time when the definitions popular, art, traditional or ethnic music are increasingly less meaningful. The title “Musical Intersections” also refers to another feature of the series: that of providing different media according to the type of project: CDs, but also CD_BOOKs, books, DVDs and other multimedia products.