Classic Music Concert by high gifted pupils 02.05.2009

22:15 | 02 Mayıs 2009

TEV and the Pekinel siblings are enriching the lives of bright students from Anatolia, who are set to attend universities such as Harvard and Yale, through classical music.

At the invitation of Ömer Koç, the new Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Education Foundation (TEV), I attended a deeply meaningful concert at Boğaziçi University’s historic Albert Long Hall; afterwards, I reflected on it at length. The concert bore no resemblance to the world-class musical feasts that Evin İlyasoğlu has been treating us to every Wednesday evening for the past 12 years in the same venue (with the exception of the Rachmaninov Fantasy Op. 5 performed by Güher & Süher Pekinel). Highly gifted secondary school pupils, who had only been introduced to classical music 2–2.5 years ago, took to the stage one after another; some sat at the piano; others played the violin, clarinet, flute or bassoon. It reminded me of the student concerts we used to give back when I attended the Conservatoire as a child.

TEVİTÖL Music Department

However, unlike our mothers who took us by the arm and dragged us to the Conservatoire, neither the children’s families nor the children themselves had any intention of playing an instrument. That is, until one of the volunteer mothers at the school—which had been founded in the name of Sezai Türkeş’s wife, Mrs İnanç, and taken over by TEV in 2002 due to financial difficulties, with its name changed to TEVİTÖL (Turkish Education Foundation İnanç Türkeş Private High School)—invited our world-renowned pianists, the Pekinel sisters, Güher and Süher, to the school… The Pekinel sisters visited the school; they met young people of exceptional intelligence, selected from all corners of Anatolia, who came from families with limited financial means. They were deeply impressed by their talents and creativity. They performed for these young people at a concert organised by TEV at İş Sanat, and with the proceeds, the TEVİTÖL Güher & Süher Pekinel Music Department was established 2.5 years ago..

Their first ‘official’ concerts

And on Thursday evening, in the presence of Ertuğrul Günay, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, we listened to the Pekinels’ students. Among them were some from whom music seemed to flow naturally, and others who focused intently on playing flawlessly… You really should have heard Miyase Pelin Tunç from Konya play Chopin’s waltz. Miyase later took to the stage with her clarinet and performed a Mozart duet alongside Aylin Babaoğlu. Ayşegül Dinçkök, one of TEVİTÖL’s volunteer mothers, explained. In the past, the students’ goal was to study subjects such as genetics, computer engineering, law and philosophy at the world’s most renowned universities, such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Now, most students have set themselves a new goal: they also wish to continue their musical education. When the Music Department was established, the aim was to pave the way for gifted children to develop into individuals of world-class standard. But if some are now adding music to their higher education, this means the original objective has been surpassed in as little as 2.5 years.

In the second half of the concert, the Pekinel siblings transported the audience with Rachmaninov. This first ‘official concert’ since the establishment of the Music Department concluded amidst thunderous applause, with the Pekinels performing the second movement of Bach’s Concerto in D Minor alongside their students, dedicated to Prof. Dr. Türkan Saylan, President of the CYDD..