Hezarfen Ensemble

Hezarfen Ensemble burst onto the Istanbul music scene in 2010, bringing the performance of contemporary music to Istanbul’s rich musical landscape while providing a much-needed platform to the many superb composers of the 21st century Turkish composing scene.

With signature projects ranging from trio (Word and Sound) to interdisciplinary chamber opera (Deniz Küstü and Mevlâna-Say I am You) and Music of Displacement, the impact of Hezarfen on music in Turkey has been profound, changing the face of contemporary music in its home country, while the infectious energy of its performances has brought acclaim for the ensemble in its appearances at festivals across Europe.

Makam, the programme they will perform at Bristol New Music, is the sound world of much Turkish, Central Asian and North African music brought into a contemporary music context. Hezarfen Ensemble’s European Research Council (ERC)-supported programme, co-produced by BNM and Ankara Music Festival, presents the first iteration of seven new works by very different contemporary composers, all utilising makam instruments and performers as well as the written and audio-visual resources of Hezarfen Ensmeble’s five-year Beyond East and West project on Turkish instruments in their writing process.