An American in Turkey

A blog about how I came to conduct all-Actor programs in Ankara and Izmir

Naturally, I was intrigued, and had many questions: about the rehearsal schedule, possible language issues communicating with the orchestra (English is my only fluent language), the financial arrangements – and not least about Turkey itself, which I had never visited. But my main concern was how programming decisions get made. Certainly for U.S. orchestras, individual musicians have little or no say over programming, which is normally the province of orchestra management and music directors. For historical reasons, all orchestras in Turkey are state institutions, with rotating management councils elected by the musicians, and Mr. Günçer was confident that presenting this kind of project to his friends on the management council had a high probability of being approved. In his enthusiasm, he even suggested offering an all-Actor program, to be conducted by me, and taking it to orchestras in other Turkish cities besides Ankara. This prompted me to ask the question, “Why would people in Turkey come to a concert of works by an American composer they’ve never heard of?” Not to worry, he assured me; they played weekly to nearly full audiences, who no doubt would enjoy my music. They would consider it an honor to host me, and had every reason to expect a successful concert. No pressure!

Over the following months, as we continued to email back and forth, Fethi introduced the symphony management to my music, which apparently they liked very much. In mid-2013, I finally received a formal invitation from the orchestra to conduct a program of my works for the 2013-14 season. However, it was late in the planning process, and we couldn’t find a mutually agreeable time to schedule the concert. I was invited again for the 2014-15 season, but the appointment of a new General Music Director and the usual bureaucratic red tape caused that season’s schedule to fill up before we could find a suitable date. I got another invitation in the summer of 2015 for the 2015-16 season, and, try as we might, couldn’t find a date that worked for both of us. Unbelievably, the same thing happened a year later for the 2016-17 season. The stars finally aligned for the 2017-18 season and we locked in a week in mid-March 2018. In short order, Fethi arranged for a concert the following week in Izmir with the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra (İzmir Devlet Senfoni Orkestrası in Turkish). A few months later I had signed contracts with both orchestras and could start planning this trip in earnest.

Then in early October 2017, Turkey and the U.S. got into a diplomatic dispute and each stopped issuing travel visas to the other country. As the impasse continued week after week, the entire project became increasingly doubtful. It seemed the only other option I had was to make an appointment for an interview at the nearest Turkish embassy (400 miles away) and hope they would decide to issue a visa. But I was working on a deadline for my latest composition, and didn’t have the time to spare – especially since there was no guarantee that it would result in a travel visa. I asked my friends at the C.S.O. if there was anything they could do, but their hands were tied. The two countries finally kissed and made up the last week of December 2017, and I was able to quickly get our e-Visas online.

Poster for Ankara concert

Another snag concerned getting the orchestral parts for the program to Turkey. When the C.S.O. tried to place an order on my website, they told me they were unable to because “Turkey” was not in the list of countries offered. This surprised me, as I use PayPal on the website. But a little investigation revealed that in 2016 Turkey had passed new regulations that required IT systems for financial transactions be localized within the country, making it impossible for PayPal to continue doing business there (they distribute their IT across numerous global hubs). This inspired us to forgo the shipping of physical parts entirely, opting instead for secure pdfs – much less expensive and less work, at least on my part. I’ve since added a pdf option to my online store for all parts.

The orchestra booked our flights, and we made our final preparations. Ok, I’ll say it – I HATE traveling. I hate airports with their security lines and endless waiting, I hate being a captive sardine on an airplane, I hate disrupting my daily schedule, I hate not having my “stuff” around me. It took the extraordinary opportunity offered me in Turkey to overcome my innate reluctance to spend 2 weeks in a foreign country. We had a direct flight from San Francisco to Istanbul, which took 13 hours; from there it’s an hour or so flight to Ankara, the capital of Turkey and its 2nd largest city. The orchestra sent a car to take us from the airport to the hotel, where we finally met in person my now good friend Fethi Günçer. Fethi greeted us with flowers for my wife and a large supply of bottled water – “better than hotel bottled water”, he assured us. Apparently, most people in Turkey drink bottled rather than tap water.

Our room was fairly small by American standards, but big enough for our needs, and at least we had Wi-Fi. But as we hauled in our several large suitcases filled with 2 weeks’ worth of clothing, concert clothes and other essentials, we noticed there was no closet, no place to hang up anything, no drawers, and no shelves. Hmm, this was going to be interesting. We did end up changing rooms after one night, as the ventilation system wasn’t working properly, and ended up in a larger room with space to hang up and store our clothes.

We had two full days before rehearsals started on Tuesday, leaving plenty of time for sightseeing around Ankara. Fethi was our gracious host, taking us to museums, bazaars, and the famous mausoleum of Atatürk, the founder and first President of the Republic of Turkey, which replaced the crumbling Ottoman Empire in 1923. Call me quirky, but I always enjoy visiting supermarkets and department stores in other countries, which along with “people watching” gives me a better feel for the local population than artifacts from the Bronze Age, interesting though the latter may be. We had several outstanding meals in Ankara; one of the most memorable was lunch at a restaurant very popular with locals, but practically unknown to tourists. We had lamb “kebap” – seasoned meat roasted on a vertical rotisserie, sliced thinly and served on a kind of puffy bread – and the best baklava I’ve ever had, baked fresh daily at the restaurant. And at the hotel breakfast buffet I developed a daily habit for “simit”, a popular street food which is basically a torus-shaped bread covered in sesame seeds – kind of a Turkish bagel. The food in Turkey was delightful, the only problem being to avoid overindulging.

Rehearsal in Ankara

On Tuesday morning we finally got down to business. The orchestra sent a car to take us from the hotel to the concert hall, only a few minutes away. The program was designed around my “Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra”, a Finalist for the 2013 American Prize in Orchestral Composition and always a big hit with audiences; it has been performed 16 times to date. Fethi and I spent a couple of hours on Monday going over the whole concerto and aligning our concepts of the piece; I had just conducted a performance of the concerto in February with the Palo Alto Philharmonic, so it was still very fresh in my memory. For the opener I had decided on “Dance Rhapsody”, one of my most popular pieces (14 performances) and a sure-fire audience pleaser; it won 2nd place in the 2011 American Prize in Orchestra Composition, and was the winner of the 2016 Austin Civic Orchestra Composition Competition. I had conducted the premiere in 2010 and knew there were technical challenges for both orchestra and conductor. The final piece on the program was my 34-minute “Symphony No. 3”, which had not been performed since its premiere in 2013; it has a definite “Shostakovich” vibe, and a couple of the movements are challenging even for professionals. The program totaled 72 minutes of music, which I thought would be quite doable in 4 rehearsals, even though this would be all-new music for the orchestra – the Turkish premieres of all 3 pieces, in fact.

As the Assistant Conductor of the Palo Alto Philharmonic since 2001, I am very familiar with the rehearsal techniques and pacing needed to prepare a good amateur orchestra for performance. However, this would be my first time conducting a professional orchestra, and I was admittedly a bit anxious. As the sole composer on the program, I faced a double whammy: the musicians might dislike my music, my conducting, or both; and negative feelings in one area were sure to affect the other.

Fethi taught me a few words of Turkish to introduce myself to the orchestra, and as we started rehearsing “Dance Rhapsody” a comfortable relationship quickly developed between me and the musicians. My fears about communication issues proved unfounded; most of the orchestra understood at least some English. I learned that the concertmaster had studied for several years at the New England Conservatory, and those few times I needed to express a more complex idea, she helpfully translated for the orchestra. But for the most part “musical Italian” and a little English worked just fine. I quickly learned to avoid using large numbers, as in “Please begin at m. 237”; much better was “6 before letter K”. Interestingly, the musicians in Izmir the following week specifically asked me to use absolute measure numbers when they realized I was intentionally avoiding using them.

Me and Fethi

There is a fine balance for a conductor – especially a guest conductor – between maintaining control and keeping the musicians engaged. For example, I had been told that the mid-rehearsal break was 15 minutes long; but that first day when I returned to the stage at the appointed time, it was still largely empty. The “real” break was closer to 25 minutes, which I didn’t make an issue of; an easy decision considering the 3-hour rehearsal length. On purely musical issues, we worked hard but efficiently, and I made no compromises. I was “tested” a couple of times – such as when a string principal suggested that a certain passage would be easier if not played as softly as notated – but the orchestra quickly realized that I knew what I wanted, and there was very little friction overall. As the week passed, more and more musicians overcame their shyness or insecurity about their English to tell me how much they were enjoying the music and working with me.

The orchestra management had asked me if I was willing to give a presentation to local conservatory students, which I agreed to. On Wednesday afternoon my talk covered the circuitous journey to my career as a full-time composer, with numerous audio examples of how my compositional style has changed over the past 40 years. No translator was needed, and the audience seemed very appreciative.

The performance in Ankara was billed as the “Turkish-American Friendship Concert” (a bit ironic considering the recent diplomatic friction between the countries), and it wasn’t until we had been in Turkey for some time that I understood how key a player the U.S. Embassy had been as a financial promoter of the concert. They held a very nice reception for us on Thursday evening at the ambassador’s residence, where I met the acting ambassador and much of his staff, all of whom attended the performance Friday evening. Of course, promoting good relations between Turkey and the U.S. is a major component of their jobs, and they were very excited to learn that an American composer would be in Ankara for a week to conduct a program of his works. I should mention that none of the orchestra management who attended the reception had ever been to the ambassador’s residence before, so it was a first for all of us. One person I met there was a Turkish composer who wrote orchestral music but taught jazz at the conservatory; improbably, he received his doctorate in Tennessee!

The “general” rehearsal on Friday morning – what we would call a dress rehearsal – included a large contingent of elementary-age school kids in the audience. At the break, they rushed up to the stage and seemed genuinely excited to speak to me, though honestly I’m not sure why. I’m not a big fan of tiring out the orchestra the day of the concert, so I made sure we did what we needed during the rehearsal and let them go 30 minutes early. You can’t overrate good will.

I arrived at the concert hall 2 hours before the performance, where the U.S. Embassy filmed a short promotional video you can see here: U.S. Embassy video. The house was nearly full for the concert, which was received warmly. I was pretty sure that Dance Rhapsody and the saxophone concerto would go over well, as they always seem to; but I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised at the enthusiastic ovation given the 3rd Symphony, much of which has a fairly dark mood. The orchestra recorded video for the entire concert:
Dance Rhapsody
Saxophone Concerto
Symphony No. 3

Just outside ancient Ephesus

Following the performance in Ankara, the original plan was to fly the 325 miles to Izmir for another week of rehearsals and concert; but Fethi offered to drive us there in his van for a more up close and personal view of the country, which sounded like fun. We spent most of the day Saturday on the road, during which it rained intermittently. Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey and is located on the west coast of the country, on the Aegean Sea. It is a popular tourist destination and has a relaxed, laid back feel not unlike Northern California. Several of Fethi’s close relatives live in Izmir, including his brother Cemil, recently retired concertmaster of the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra (İzmir Devlet Senfoni Orkestrası in Turkish). Cemil and his wife Karen – originally from Wales – were extremely gracious and treated us like family members, hosting us at their home nearly every evening for dinner and conversation.

The rehearsal schedule in Izmir was similar to that in Ankara: rehearsals in the mornings from Tuesday through Friday, with the concert Friday evening, leaving us two full days for sightseeing. One must-see destination, about an hour away by car, is the famous ruins of the ancient city of Ephesus, some of which is as much as 8000 years old. There is a large Greek amphitheater there which is still used as a performing venue.

The concert hall in Izmir is fairly new, and quite attractive. As in Ankara, the orchestra provided a driver each day. The musicians were again very friendly and welcoming, and as the week went on a number of them approached me during breaks to let me know they enjoyed rehearsing my music. It was interesting to compare the two orchestras: one a little stronger in the strings, the other with stronger horns, etc.; but overall they were quite similar in their level of playing. The concert in Izmir was also well-received, and the entire experience was very humbling and gratifying for me.

Concert in Izmir

It is a great honor for any composer to have an entire program dedicated solely to his works. It’s not unusual to see an all-Beethoven, or all-Mozart, or all-[fill in the name of another immortal composer] concert program; but such a thing is much rarer for a living composer. It’s not something I ever expected to happen for me – let alone in Turkey! I’m told that this was the first concert in the 192-year history of the C.S.O. that consisted of the works of a single composer, conducted by the composer. Obviously I’m very humbled and grateful for the opportunity, and look forward to my next visit to Turkey. My biggest debt of gratitude goes to Fethi Günçer, who took it upon himself to champion my music in Turkey, and single-handedly fought with determination to overcome every obstacle – and there were many – to bring me to his country to perform. No composer could ask for more.

— Lee Actor