"Mevlana"

By Özge Yalin, "‘Magic flute' Kutluer launches new album" - Today's Zaman - Istanbul, Turkey
Thursday, November 6, 2008

Answering the universal call of Mevlana Muhammed Jelaluddin Rumi, a number of artists from Turkey have offered musical works themed around his philosophy of universal tolerance in the past few years.

And now, following last year's premieres of internationally acclaimed pianist-composer Sabri Tuluğ Tırpan's "Mevlana -- The Alchemist Symphonic Poem" and symphonic new-age composer Can Atilla's "Mevlana Oratorio," world-famous Turkish flautist Şefika Kutluer's newest album -- named after and dedicated to the 13th century Sufi saint and poet -- will be premiered tonight with a concert at İstanbul's historic Hagia Eirene Museum.

Kutluer, in tonight's concert titled "Symphonic Sufi Music," will perform Azerbaijani composer İlyas Mirzayev's "Mevlana Flute Concerto" and the "Yunus Emre Overture," followed by traditional Turkish composer İsmail Dede Efendi's "Gülnihal," all featured in her new album "Mevlana."

The award-winning flautist, busy with concerts and recordings in which she collaborates with the Berlin Philharmonic and Britain's Royal Philharmonic orchestras, recorded the "Mevlana" album with the Prague Virtuosi chamber orchestra.

Kutluer will be accompanied by the Bursa State Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Czech maestro Oldrich Vlcek in the concert, marking the worldwide release of the album. The second part of tonight's concert will feature a sema (whirling dervish) ritual.

The new album, apart from the pieces to be performed at tonight's concert, also includes new arrangements for orchestra and flute solo of Azerbaijani musician Arif Melikov's "Flute Concerto" and the late Turkish composer Ekrem Zeki Ün's "Yunus'un Mezarında" ("At the Tomb of Yunus") chamber music for flute and piano.

Kutluer, who is dubbed the "magic flute" in international music circles, says she has a huge admiration for great Turkish composers such as Efendi, who she says was far ahead of his time.

"Making their works heard all around the world means telling the whole world on what scale Turks contributed in the world music repertoire," Kutluer says about her album.