On stage with the youth…

Evin İlyasoğlu, 19.10.2011

The Pekinel sisters are running three volunteer projects in which they are passing on their experience to up-and-coming musicians.

Pekinels are experienced artists who have been acclaimed on stage around the world and who have made their mark on the history of piano duets. Now they are providing education, funding scholarships and passing on their experience to young musicians they support through volunteer projects.

Many years ago, I observed a seminar put on by the Pekinel sisters in 1985. They were saying:

“Don’t be afraid! Put yourself into the music…
You must go inside the piano, inside the chords, you must go deeper…
The music has to be inside you…You must first become one with the piece that you are about to play. The important thing is to experience the whole composition. You must solve the problems one by one so you can be worry-free during the whole piece.”

These were golden admonitions for a piano student. The Pekinel sisters are experienced artists who have been acclaimed on stage around the world and who have made their mark on the history of piano duets. They are now sharing the experience they have accumulated with young people. They are simultaneously carrying out three projects that are completely voluntary.

The first is the G&S Pekinel Music Department they have set up at TEVITOL High School. The second is a project called “Young Musicians on World Stages”. This project provides scholarships to give skilled students the opportunity to study with top schools and instructors outside Turkey. The third project is to provide musical education to children at a young age by introducing the ORFF Method to the Turkish educational system. Last week the Pekinel sisters went on stage at the Cemal Resit Rey Concert Hall in Istanbul (followed by concerts in Ankara and Izmir), accompanied by talented young musicians who are taking steps toward the international stage. Without a doubt, this was a historical event for young people. The project was supported by Onduline Avrasya A.Ş., whose CEO, Burhan Karahan, gave a speech at the opening of the concert that was very genuine and to the point. Without talking at length or praising himself or his company, he turned the stage over to the young musicians. Only one thing was missing from his speech: A small expression of gratitude to the teachers who had trained up those young musicians. There was no need to name them one by one because they were all listed in each person’s background description, but expressing a general appreciation would have acknowledged their labor.

All the young musicians were confident and commanded the stage. In the long program, the pieces that were chosen connected with each other harmoniously. They had worked on everything: entering and exiting the stage, clothes that went well together, their posture and their greetings. It was clear that the Pekinel sisters had given them tips on how to be a soloist and a concert performer. In particular, they were like musicians who had been playing for years when it came to the way they listened to each other in the chamber music groups, playing every nuance in unison by putting themselves into the music wholeheartedly.

Cellist Dorukhan Doruk (b. 1991) was trained by Dilbağ Tokay at the MSU Conservatory. He is continuing his studies at the Cologne Conservatory for Music with C. Kanngiesser. He has already won many international awards. It is not at all easy to do the opening for a concert with a cello solo. He played Intermezzo e Danza Finale from Gaspar Cassado’s Suite with great skill and deep feeling.

Violinist Elvin Hoxha (b. 1997) displayed posture and sensitivity he learned from his grandfather, Server Ganiyev, as he played The Devil’s Trill by Tartini. While currently working with E. Postnova at Bilkent, he is also a student of Zakhar Bron, one of the most famous pedagogues in the world.