An evening of choral classics in Turkey promoted tolerance and healing

It was a musical event organised and promoted by Turkey’s conservative government and the same communications office that gives me and other journalists our press cards. And it was spectacular, both for the stellar performances of choral classics by Mozart, Schubert, Verdi and Armenian composers, and the vision of tolerance and healing it hinted at.

Hand in Hand for New Hope After the Pandemic was the title of the event, and it drew representatives of the Ankara government, as well as Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Armenian Catholic religious leaders.

The recital took place inside Istanbul’s majestic Saint Anthony’s Church, performed by an Armenian vocalist and Armenian organist, in the ornate early 20th-century basilica on Istanbul’s Istiklal Caddesi.

I only heard about the event because my daughter’s longtime piano teacher, Anna Gevorgyan Ugurluyan, was the organist of the two-person performance on Monday, in which sopranist Karin Cubukciyan Bozkurt’s searing voice filled the basilica’s cavernous interior. Both are members of Istanbul’s tiny, long-embattled but vibrant Armenian community.

“I wish to live in this land, hand in hand, with love and unity for many years, as it has been for thousands of years,” Ms Cubukciyan told the audience.

In the programme were several songs by Armenian composers. They included Soviet-era composer and pianist Alexander Arutiunian and the late 19th-century composer Makar Yekmalyan.

But also buried in the evening’s repertoire was a rendition of Der Vorghomya – “Lord Have Mercy” by the Ottoman-born Armenian composer and priest Gomidas Vartabed, often referred to as Komitas, who died in 1935 after surviving the Armenian genocide in a life story worthy of an epic film.

Yours,

Borzou Daragahi

International correspondent