Germany’s Turkish orchestra (or vice-versa) turns 60 this week
NewsA ‘Diaspora Orchestra’ of Turkish musicians in Germany, and returned German citizens in Turkey, will mark a major anniversary of borderline existence in a concert at Istanbul’s Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall tomorrow.
The orchestra, led by violinist Önder Baloğlu and managed by a leading Turkish classical agency, consists of Turkish musicians who have worked in German orchestras and universities, Turkish students in Germany, German musicians and others who lived in Germany for many years and have since repatriated.
The anniversary concert specifically celebrates the waves of Turkish Gastarbeiter who rebooted the German economy from the 1950s on and were not easily accepted into German society.
Report here.
they did the jobs that Germans did not
want to do.
There were decades of racist disdain in Germany and Austria toward Turkish guest workers and their Islamic culture. I remember the ironies when the Vienna Phil had no women members, but the Istanbul Phil had many. Some wag turned the tables and suggested that perhaps a delegation from Istanbul could be sent to Vienna to help them integrate women into the Philharmonic.