Organised by the Intercultural Institute of Comparative Music Studies, the Bîrûn series of Ottoman music workshops has now reached its ninth edition. This year the director Kudsi Erguner has chosen to study the composi- tions of the musician prince Demetrius Cantemir, who lived for a long time at the Ottoman court in the 17th century. The Moldavian prince Demetrius Cantemir (1673-1723) was a genius of many talents: the son of Constantin Cantemir, prince and governor (voyvod) of Moldavia, he was captured by the Ottomans in 1687 and held in Constantinople as a princely hostage to prevent uprisings in Moldavia. He thus grew up in the Ottoman metropolis, where he married and lived until 1710, moving between the Greek Orthodox quarter of Fanar (or Fener) and the court. Of his many talents, he cultivated his gift for music as he forged relationships with the nobility and Sultan Ahmed III (1673-1736) but most importantly with the greatest musicians and composers of the day, and he too became a soloist on the tanbūr (longnecked lute). The workshop will be attended by a selected group of musicians, who will perform in a concert open to the public in the Palladian Refectory on San Giorgio (15 July). As in previous years, the workshop will be preceded by “Prelude to Bîrûn”, an introductory talk by Giovanni De Zorzi.