News

Interview: Ankara Music Festival opens doors for young artists and audiences

5 August 2010

In an interview in the framework of the Varna Broadcast project, Ibrahim Barisik from the International Ankara Music Festival – one of the biggest music festivals in Turkey – spoke about the importance of supporting young artists, attracting young audiences and engaging in international collaboration between festivals. The Ankara Music Festival includes mainly classical music but also jazz as well as modern dance performances. It has been organised by a non-profit music foundation since 27 years. In 1993, the Ankara Music Festival became a member of the European Festivals Association (EFA). The foundation had been set up “to support Turkish classical music artists and to make them collaborate with international artists,” explains Ibrahim Barisik. The upcoming edition (April 2011) focuses on young composers and artists. The diverse programme encourages young audiences to listen to a broad variety of music. The festival aims to bring more young artists into the festival. With more than seven universities Ankara is a very young city. “We would like to make use of being in a young city. We want the young people to interact with the biggest music event in Ankara which is the International Ankara Music Festival,” says Barisik. Asked if the festival collaborates with other festivals and with the European Festivals Association, Barisik stresses the importance of strong joint activities with other members of the Association. He refers to the collaboration project “MUSMA – Music Masters on Air” which aims to support young artists, composers and performers. Within the project one concert of each participating festival will be recorded by a radio channel; through MUSMA an exchange between the festival, i.e. an exchange of artists, is encouraged. The interview (16 May 2010) was part of the broadcast project entitled “The Festivals of Europe”. From May 2010 until May 2011 – finishing just before the 2011 EFA General Assembly and Conference that is to take place in Varna and hosted by the Varna Summer International Music Festival – interviews with EFA members will be broadcasted on Radio Varna (www.radiovarna.com) at a weekly basis. Related links: • Interview Ibrahim Barisik: Part 1; Part 2EFA Multimedia Gallery (all interviews)