ABOUT THE YOUNG CLASSISCISTS FESTIVAL

The Young Classicists Festival was formed from the idea and dream of uniting people and concepts whose paths rarely cross in Istanbul. “Festival and Seyrantepe”, “Classical Music and Youth”, “Music and Everyday Life” were among the contrasting dichotomies.

Our starting point was to believe in the cohesive nature of music. We wanted to remind people of the bonds between ourselves and performers, workers, musicians, academicians, and everybody on the street. We were sure that it would do us all good to suddenly pause in our hurrying through the crowds, to slow down, and to listen to the sound of music.

When workers leave work to go home, is it possible for them to meet at a cultural centre? Could it be engineered so that somebody who stepped onto the concert wagon of the subway would be able to reach Seyrantepe by following the direction that music was coming from? Could one reduce the distance between Classical Music and its listeners? Could the answer to these questions be “yes” with regards to a festival of international dimensions?
In the year 2009, we took an important step with the first festival that we organized in our 250-person studio in Seyrantepe. We focused on the sustainability of the organization after including children and young people in our project.

The people who supported us had a great influence on our decision to turn our focus in this direction. We increased with the faith shown by leading names in academic music towards this structure.
Our job is not just to organize a festival but to reach children and young people who wish to immerse themselves in music, learn it and produce it, but would not usually have the opportunity for this. This is why we are putting on concerts at schools located in the Seyrantepe and Kagithane districts, and making announcements to invite students to StudYOYO. With the support of the Ministry of Education, we organized a listening examination, after which we provided one student from each school with a one-year piano scholarship.

The Young Classicists Festival is a special event presented to Istanbul as a gift, focusing on not only professional performers but young talent from Turkey and abroad, as well as children. It is an alternative formation embracing the residents, workers and children of the Industrial Zone and Kagithane, and open to talented young people and music lovers throughout the world via gencklasikciler.org.

It is no mere random coincidence that the festival idea emerged in the Industrial Zone. YOYO lives in the Seyrantepe Industrial Zone. Seyrantepe is the headquarters of a group familiar with the industrial zone, inspired in many of its projects by this structure, and is simultaneously immersed in art.

The 2nd International Young Classicists Festival - became a festival that reached beyond the studio, to the metro, to schools, and to tens of thousands of people. We planned the Young Classicists Festival with total adherence to our starting point, with the next step always in mind, and it will remain true to this same direction in 2011 and future years.