Promising new boss for Istanbul Fest
mainAmid all the horrid news from Turkey, there are signs of progress at the country’s #1 festival:
Efruz Çakırkaya, Assistant Director of Istanbul Music Festival since 2008, will become Festival’s Director this month.
Yesim Gurer Oymak will be missed deeply…
This is a great appointment, Efruz is very experienced, a great judge of talent and a really nice person who artists like a lot. The good news is that Yesim Gurer is still there too. She was promoted last year to a bigger role in the Istanbul Festival organisation which encompasses much more than music. Good news all around.
Not knowing the worth of a company role that ‘encompasses much more than music’, I cannot readily join an absolutist cheering statement.
Dr. Gürer Oymak had her undergraduate and graduate degrees in music (piano and musicology) with distinction, and gave the Istanbul audience the option of hearing some of the most distinguished artists in the world. I only know two instances when she had hard time with musicians: One was Musica Antiqua Köln, and the other was Angela Gheorghiu. About the latter, I can testify that Oymak put in superhuman effort to make the event happen. Best of luck to Çakırkaya…