Since the COVID-19 pandemic it has felt like the classical music world has largely been on hold. Cancelled concerts, redundancies, musicians with no work, and even plans for the new London concert hall were abandoned. But amongst all the chaos, there seemed to be somewhere totally bucking the trend and very much building towards the future… Turkey.
In December I was lucky enough to attend the opening of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall and find out more about the plans for the future of classical music in Turkey on a trip to Ankara and Istanbul (International travel!!! I know right?!?!?). I’ve had some time since then to reflect on the whole trip, and the two overarching themes are ambition and optimism.
Although the concert hall had been stuck in development limbo for years, it was finished in just 21 months at the relatively cheap price of €83 million… a tenth the cost of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg! On top of that it’s also the largest concert hall in Turkey, covering 62,000 square metres.
