Rehearsals and recording session

Hi all,

We are converging in Hartford this weekend for two days of playing, in preparation for a recording session taking place in Montpelier Vermont in late October. Keep eyes out for the new tracks, featuring several pieces we brought to Turkey with us and more.


-Dna

Summer in the US

Hello all,

We all hope you had a great summer! We are all know back on the continent and gearing up for several concerts this fall in Boston MA, Montpelier VT and Hartford CT. Keep an eye out for these dates and more possible Turkey dates.

-Dan

Merhaba!

We play our last concert in Turkey tonight at Ankara University's Culture and Arts House. We'll be performing a hybird of our three concert programs, including some of the premiers, some of our standards and some pieces calling for viola. Tomorrow morning we leave on an early flight for Istanbul, where we'll have a day to do nothing but explore and check out the city's magnificent mosques. Most likely we won't have internet access after today, so this is the last post that will come to you from Turkey. Dan and I hop a flight back to US on Thursday, while Erberk will be sticking around Ankara for the rest of the summer.

Thank you so much for following, and as soon as we know our future US concert dates, we'll post 'em.

Best wishes and stay in touch!

The Anatolian Trio

...be sure to check back for pics and a post about our time in Istanbul.

Turkey Premiers

Merhaba!

The concert at Hacettepe University last night went very well. We premiered new works composed for us by Jessica Rudman, Robert Carl and Hacettepe University's own Serdar Mukhatov. The premiers were a great hit with the audience and we had a wonderful time performing them. We were enormously pleased with the enthusiastic reception, and with how the new works are beginning to settle in our fingers and ears. Earlier in the week we were able to perform Erik Nielsen's Some Lonesome Valley, a work also composed for us, in a seminar for the composition students at the conservatory. Today we are museum hopping and bazaar shopping, and getting ready for our last concert, also in Ankara, on the 1st.

The program for our Hacettepe University concert:

Stravinsky - L'histoire du soldat

Jessica Rudman - Three pieces for the Anatolian Trio

Saygun - two etudes, a piece for children

intermission

Robert Carl - Quantum Dances

Serdar Mukhatov -Song of the Child from Bagirli Village

Erberk Eryilmaz - Miniatures

We wanted to thank both Bediz Koçak and Cihan Yücel for the use of the wonderful piano in the conservatory's recital hall, and we wanted to send our congratulations to Robert Carl for being awarded an honorable mention in the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble 2010 contest for his Quantum Dances.

Thanks and stay tuned,

Güle güle!

Back in Ankara

Merhaba!

We've just arrived back in Ankara after a sold out and successfully performed concert in Antakya, a city just inland from the Mediterranean and almost on the border with Syria. We had a chance to do some mildly tourist things while visiting Antakya - the city boasts the second largest mosaic collection (next to Paris) and was the site of the first Christian church, the Church of St. Peter. We headed up to the hills surrounding the city and took in the striking view of the entirety of Antakya, and climbed some remnants of a old castle overlooking the city.

As for the concert - it was to benefit a mentally handicapped school in the city, which we visited in the afternoon before the concert. Because we were able to sell every seat in the house, we raised around 7,000 TL (4,000 USD) for the school. We played a great show, which of course was followed by a dinner of epic proportions and we had a great time getting to know the director of the school and some of the people involved in the local classical music lovers association.

The program for this concert:

Stravinsky - L'histoire du soldat
Saygun - two etudes, a piece for children
Bruch - Eight Pieces Op.88, no. I and VIII

intermission
Eryilmaz - Miniatures, first set
Eryilmaz - Suite for piano
Bartok - Contrasts

For the next few days we will be working up the program for the two concerts in Ankara, this includes works by Robert Carl, Jessica Rudman and Erik Nielsen. Hopefully we'll get some time to explore Ankara, which we haven't had much of a chance to do.

Güle güle

please enjoy Erberk's rendition of "Teenage mutant ninja turtles"

First five days, Kahramanmaras Concert

Hello all,
We played our first concert here in Turkey in Kahramanmaras, a town located in the south eastern portion of Turkey, close to Syria. We traveled to Adana via an overnight bus, and then a long car ride to Kahramanmaras, were we spent several hours checking out the city and having some its famous ice cream (for the record, it was unlike anything in the states.)
Upon arrival at the university, we were able to check out the hall (driest hall any of us has ever played in,) play a short dress rehearsal and then take an hour or so to warmup/nap. Despite the condition of the hall, our serious jet lag and the fact that we had been traveling for almost three straight days, we played a decent concert. Most of the audience had never heard classical music live before and, as a result, we were treated like rock stars. It was a much needed reminder that classical music can still get people genuinely excited.

Our program for the Kahramanmaras concert:

Stravinsky - L'histoire du soldat
Poulenc - Sonata for clarinet and piano
Saygun - two etudes, a piece for children
intermission
Eryilmaz - Miniatures, first set
Eryilmaz - Suite for piano
Bartok - Contrasts

We are now back in Ankara for a few days resting, catching up to the jet lag, practicing and tomorrow we will start rehearsing and recording to prepare for the next several concerts. Our thoughts are with Robert Carl in Alabama.

Gule Gule!

Hello!

After 30 hours of travel and a 7 hour time difference, we finally made it to Ankara. We arrived at 2:30 am and decompressed for a few hours with tea and turkish sweets. After a much needed nights sleep, we awoke to a spread of unimaginable proportions and of course, bottomless cups of tea. We'll spend the day preparing for our kick-off concert tomorrow in Kahramanmaras. On the agenda for the day: find a viola, pick our first program, rehearse, and finally, take the midnight bus to Adana.

Thanks for staying with us!

Cheers,

The Anatolian Trio