On Saturday, June 2, 2012, “A Musical Journey with the Orient Express,” a classical-world music performance presented by Aysegul Durakoglu and sponsored by the Turkish Culture and Tourist Office in New York City, will take place in the Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

The program is inspired by the journey of the famous Orient Express Train that traveled between Istanbul and Paris beginning in June 1889. The program begins with chamber music works (both U.S. and New York premieres) from the Ottoman Court composed in the departure city of Istanbul. These works include marches and dances composed by Giuseppe Donizetti, the brother of the famous opera composer Gaetano Donizetti, who served at the Ottoman Court for twenty years, and his student Sultan Murad Khan the Fifth, who later became an accomplished composer himself. These works have been arranged to string quartet and piano by the Turkish pianist and composer Vedat Kosal and rearranged and copied by the composer, Jose Bevia.

The audiences will be taken on a musical journey through time and location as the program follows the train’s route through major European capitals like Bucharest, Budapest, Vienna and Paris are featured. Among the selected music are the Roumanian Folk Dances by Bela Bartok, Czardas by Monti, Hungarian Rhapsody for piano solo, Nr. 11 by Franz Liszt, Arias from Lehar’s Operetta “Merry Widow”, various dance music like tangos and waltzes by Claude Debussy, Eric Satie, Stravinsky, and Piazzolla.

The program concludes with “Vocalize” by the contemporary Turkish composer, Cemal Resid Rey. This work is based on a traditional Istanbul folk song, “Katibim” followed by variations arranged for piano, voice, flute, cello, and violin and will be premiered in New York at this performance.

Saturday June 2, 2012
7:30 PM

The Allen Room in Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center is located on Broadway at 60th Street, New York, NY.

Tickets are $50; students and seniors $40. For further ticket information, please visit the Jazz at Lincoln Center Box Office, located on Broadway at 60thStreet, Ground Floor (Monday-Saturday, 10 am-6 pm, Sunday 12 pm-6 pm), call Center Charge at (212) 721-6500.

For more information please contact:

Aysegul Durakoglu
Teaching Associate Professor, Music & Technology
Morton
Room 108
Phone: 201-216-5081
Fax: 201-216-8245
Aysegul.Durakoglu@stevens.edu