Mersin International Music Festival ( tr, Mersin Uluslararası Müzik Festivali), merfest for short, is a

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

held annually in

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. In addition to Turkish artists, performers from Spain, Italy, United States, Hungary, Germany, France, Russia, Japan and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

have participated in the festival.

History

Mersin International Music Festival is a non-governmental project sponsored by private companies,

Mersin University Mersin University ( tr, Mersin Üniversitesi) is a public university, built in 1992 in Mersin Province, Turkey. It has about 39,000 students, 1,813 academic staff, and a number of foreign and guest academic staff. The university has research and ...

, local municipalities and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It was established in 2002 and organized until 2007 by Mersin Cultural Society ( tr, Mersin Kültür Merkezi Derneği). Since 2008, Mersin Art Activities Society ( tr, Mersin Sanat Etkinlikleri Derneği) organizes the event. In 2007, the festival became a member of the

European Festivals Association The European Festivals Association (EFA) is an umbrella group for various festivals in Europe and other countries. It supports artistic cooperation among festivals and offers programs for new festival and artistic managers. It represents more than ...

(EFA).

Concert venues

Most of the concerts are held in the halls of Mersin Cultural Center (Mersin Halkevi), Congress and Exhibition Center, Uğur Oral Cultural Center and

's Amphitheater. However, every year one concert is held at St Paulus Church in Tarsus and another one at Kanlıdivane, being an outdoor concert. Tarsus is located east, and Kanlıdivane west of Mersin.

2010 programme

The programme of 2010 Mersin International Music Festival was as follows: *

İdil Biret İdil Biret (born 21 November 1941) is a Turkish concert pianist. Education Biret began her lessons at the age of five with , who had studied under Nadia Boulanger and Alfred Cortot. When she was seven, the Turkish parliament enacted a special ...

(piano) with the Mersin State Opera and Ballet Orchestra under Myron Romanul *Group Lock Out (former Bumerang) *Group Turkuaz *Trio Libero/Ankara Trombone quartet *

Yıldız İbrahimova Yıldız İbrahimova ( bg, Йълдъз Ибрахимова, Yaldaz Ibrahimova, tr, Yıldız İbrahimova; born 1952 in Silistra) is a Bulgarian singer of Turkish ancestry. Besides jazz, she has also recorded Bulgarian, Turkish, Gypsy and Russ ...

(jazz singer) with Girift Trio (consisting of Tahir Aydoğdu, Bilgin Canaz and Çetin Bilge Akıncı) *

Satoko Tanaka is a retired Japanese backstroke swimmer. She competed at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics in the 100 m backstroke and 4×100 m medley relay. She won individual bronze in 1960 and finished fourth in both events in 1964. Between 1959 and 1964 she set ...

(soprano),

Satoko Kato Satoko (さとこ, サトコ) is a Japanese female given name. Possible Writings Satoko can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *聡子 "wise, child" *智子 "wisdom, child" *里子 "village, child" *理子 "logic, child" *� ...

(co-player, piano) and

Satoko Inoue is a Japanese musician.Library of Congress authority file Inoue Satoko no2002-26446/ref> Inoue is a concert pianist whose performance repertoire is mainly contemporary music. Inoue is also associate professor at the Kunitachi College of Music in ...

(piano) *

Jozsef Lendvay Jozsef Lendvay (born 1974) is a Hungarian violinist. Born in Budapest, Hungary, József Lendvay Jr (''son of famed Gypsy Violinist József "Csócsi" Lendvay'') attended Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, where he studied with Miklos S ...

(violin) ensemble *

Denyce Graves Denyce Graves (born March 7, 1964) is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. Early life Graves was born on March 7, 1964, in Washington, D.C., to Charles Graves and Dorothy (Middleton) Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and w ...

(mezzo-soprano) with the

Bilkent Symphony Orchestra The Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Bilkent Senfoni Orkestrası in Turkish, also known as BSO) is a major symphony orchestra of Turkey located in Bilkent, Ankara. It was founded in 1993 by Bilkent University. Since 1994 the orchestra is based at the ...

under Işın Metin *

Ilya Gringolts Ilya Gringolts (russian: Илья́ Алекса́ндрович Гринго́льц ''Il′já Aleksándrovič Gringól′c'') born 2 July 1982 in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) is a Russian violinist and composer. Gringolts studied violin in S ...

(violin) with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra under Işın Metin *Jass a Turca Quartet *Jassing Flamenco * The Ahn Trio

References

{{Members of the European Festival Association Music festivals established in 2002 Culture in Mersin Music festivals in Turkey Annual events in Turkey Classical music festivals in Turkey Jazz festivals in Turkey Tourist attractions in Mersin 2002 establishments in Turkey

History

Concert venues

2010 programme

See also

References