"Tracing Anatolian Music" Online Panel Held

With the cooperation of the BAU Conservatory and the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory and the contributions of the Anatolian Music Cultures Association, the online panel titled "Tracing Anatolian Music from Past to Present: The Change and Transformation of Folk Music in Türkiye in the Historical Process", featuring academics from leading universities in Türkiye and around the world as speakers, was held in two sessions on Monday, 25 April 2022 between 13:30 and 17:30.

The panel began with the opening speech of Aslıhan Umar, Culture and Arts Advisor to the Bahçeşehir University Board of Trustees and Director of the Conservatory. After panel coordinator and BAU Conservatory Deputy Director Lecturer İsmet Aydın announced the moderators and sessions and spoke about the content of the panel, Prof. Dr. Cenk Güray, faculty member of the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory, took the floor to chair the first session. In the first session, Assist. Prof. Dr. Özgür Balkılıç, faculty member of Abdullah Gül University, gave his talk titled "The Music of the Republic: Folk Songs, Nationalism and Westernization", immediately followed by Prof. Dr. Özlem Doğuş Varlı, faculty member of the Uludağ University State Conservatory, with her presentation titled "The Invisible Heroes of the Processes of 'Idealizing' Folk Music: Simulation or Canon?". In the session, which Prof. Dr. Okan Murat Öztürk, faculty member of the Ankara Music and Fine Arts University, could not attend after receiving news of a death, Dr. Süleyman Şenel, faculty member of the ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory, made some criticisms of the discourse and approaches in the presentations before moving on to his answer to the question posed to him, "What would you like to say about the leading roles of Radio and the Turkish Music State Conservatory in the institutionalization of Turkish Folk Music?". Throughout the discussion, it was expressed that folk music in Türkiye has not been institutionalized and that only a very limited amount of the archives is yet open to researchers. Prof. Dr. Songül Karahasanoğlu, also a faculty member of the ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory, continued with her talk approaching the process of change in folk music in Türkiye from a different perspective through the mey instrument.

In the second session, moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ulaş Özdemir, faculty member of the Istanbul University State Conservatory, the first talk was given by Erdem Şimşek, instructor at the ITU Turkish Music State Conservatory, with his presentation examining the process of change in folk music through bağlama performance. Following the talk by jazz pianist and composer Baki Duyarlar on the theme "The Continuity of Communication of Folk Music with Jazz and Popular Music", Prof. Dr. Murat Salim Tokaç, faculty member of the Haliç University Conservatory, gave his presentation referring to the historical unity of Classical Turkish Music and Turkish Folk Music. Continuing with his talk titled "The Adventure of Anatolian Music in the Diaspora", Kemal Dinç, Head of the World Music Department at the Popakademie of the Cologne-Wuppertal University of Music, spoke about the interest in and general approach to Anatolian Music around the world, particularly in the field of education. Finally, producer and arranger Ahmet Özgül, one of the close witnesses of Ankara-based folk music, evaluated the reflexes shown by musicians in the transition from analog to digital recording, citing today's current conclusions as examples. The panel attracted great interest from students, faculty members, researchers and music lovers from many different universities.