Festival image gallery

Festival web page - please click to visit

After Miles Davis's Blues in F: the soloists with (centre) Baskent University President, Prof Dr Mehmet Haberal

2nd category prizewinners and jury members (L to R): Gerassimos Ioannidis, Erden Bilgen, Arda Cabaoglu (1st prize), Sezen Ozden (2nd prize), Rex Richardson, Zeynep Cilingir (3rd prize), Matthias Kamps, Graham Nicholson

Erden Bilgen and Rex Richardson in Bilgen's composition Dialog for two solo trumpets, timps and strings

Trumpets, L-R: Erden Bilgen, Rex Richardson, Matthias Kamps, Gerassimos Ioannidis in Martini's Sonata for four trumpets and strings

From 1st to 9th July 2005 the First International Trumpet Festival was held at Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey.

The festival - its full title being the "1st International Trumpet Festival and National Trumpet and Trumpet Work Composition Competition" - was generously sponsored by Yamaha Turkey and hosted at Baskent's Department of Music and Performance Arts, part of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture. Organizer Erden Bilgen expressed the Festival's gratitude to the sponsors and to the President of Baskent University, Prof Dr Mehmet Haberal, for his gracious and multi-faceted support.

The festival website explains: "Although there are similar festivals in various countries around the world, the 1st International Trumpet Festival and National Trumpet and Trumpet Works Composition Competition organized by Baskent University will be the first festival in this field in Turkey.

"By means of this festival musicians working in this field in different countries will come together every year in our country, and this will have an important role in encouraging young Turkish artists.

"Technical and artistic knowledge about the trumpet and other wind instruments will be shared during the festival. Another mission of the festival is to invite young trumpeters and composers to explore the depth of this branch of art with the help of the national competitions. In this respect, The National Trumpet Competition will help young trumpeters gain more experience and will create new opportunities for them to learn more about trumpet playing; moreover The National Trumpet Works Composition Competition will encourage composers of any age to create new works and will contribute to the national repertoire."

From the opening ceremony on July 1st through to the closing ceremony on the 8th, which followed a final concert by Rex Richardson and Erden Bilgen, the busy programme (which may be seen on the festival website) offered a wide variety of concerts, workshops and competition rounds. Orchestral accompaniment throughout the festival was provided by the Baskent Academic Orchestra, conducted by Ertug Korkmaz.

The trumpet competition was divided into two categories. The first category winners (age up to 20 years, not pictured) were:

1. Volkan Cosar
2. Ege Balkiz
3. Onurcan Cagatay

The second category winners (age 20-25 years, please see photo) were:

1. Arda Cabaoglu
2. Sezen Ozden
3. Zeynep Cilingir

In the composition competition, Turkish composers submitted fourteen new pieces for the festival, featuring solo trumpet in various combinations: a useful crop of new music for the trumpet world. Metin Yilmaz won First Prize with his Sonata Poem.

The festival might well be summed up with these comments from the website: "During the festival, Turkish audiences will have the chance to meet and listen to many of the world wide known trumpeters and a wonderful atmosphere will be created for artists to work and share ideas with young Turkish colleagues." And the last word, from Graham Nicholson: “I was amazed by the technical level of the trumpet players and composers. It was a fantastic first opportunity for Turkey to mount an international trumpet event of this quality and scale.”

Links:
Festival website
Department of Music and Performing Arts at Baskent University (Turkish/English)
Baskent University main site (Turkish/English)
Yamaha Turkey