Above: Emre Aracı's lecture at Oxford University on 5 June 2015
An enthusiastic public speaker,
Emre Aracı gives regular lectures and participates in international conferences, which take him to many parts of the world and to many institutions, which so far included the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts and the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, New York, Vienna, Sarajevo and London. On this page you can find a selection from his themed lectures and talks, as well as links to audio and video recordings of some of them. |
Elgar in Turkey "Glorious sunrise, & the minarets of Stamboul began to come thro the mist - wonderful wonderful" wrote Sir Edward Elgar in his diary on the day he arrived in Istanbul on 25 September 1905. Over a century later, Dr Emre Aracı traces Elgar's eight-day sojourn in Istanbul and Izmir with readings from his little-known autograph diary which he kept during his first and what was to become the only visit to Turkey. A fascinating insight into the great composer's impressions of the Orient, the diary further reveals the details of an informal concert at the British Embassy in Tarabya where Elgar accompanied on the piano a selection of songs from his Sea Pictures. |
Clare Presland, mezzo-soprano Emre Engin, violin Donat Bayer Berköz, piano Programme: Sea Pictures, Op. 37, 'In Haven', 'Where Corals Lie' Salut d'Amour, Op. 12 In Smyrna (1905) |
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Hosted by His Excellency Ambassador Ünal Çeviköz and Madame Çeviköz,
Emre Aracı's lecture 'Elgar in Turkey' at the Turkish Ambassador's Residency in London on 21 June 2012,
attended by HRH the Duke of York and members of the Ottoman family.
Emre Aracı's lecture 'Elgar in Turkey' at the Turkish Ambassador's Residency in London on 21 June 2012,
attended by HRH the Duke of York and members of the Ottoman family.
The lecture was subsequently repeated in Turkish at the Pera Museum in Istanbul on 5 June 2014 and published as a book in Turkish and English editions.
Yusuf Agâh Efendi
The first Turkish Ambassador in 18th century London Among the “memorable events during the year 1793”, in between references to the turbulent incidents in post-revolutionary Republican France, including the execution of King Louis XVI, The Times newspaper listed, as the last article, the arrival of the Turkish Ambassador at Dover in December. It was indeed a memorable event, since Yusuf Agâh Efendi (1744-1824) was the first resident Ottoman envoy to be sent to the court of St James’s by the Sublime Porte and his arrival in Britain was highly anticipated. Emre Aracı traces the steps of the Ottoman Ambassador in 18th century London, through a kaleidoscope of concerts, dinners, processions, firework displays and balls from Theatre Royal, Covent Garden to the celebrated and fashionable Ranelagh and Vauxhall Gardens. |
The lecture was first given at The Turkish Ambassador's residency in London on 18 April 2013 and was repeated in Turkish at the Pera Museum in Istanbul before the original 18th century portrait of Yusuf Agâh Efendi by Carl Frederik von Breda. It was also published as a book in Turkish and English editions by the Pera Museum. A documentary was subsequently prepared by Emre Aracı and published on youtube in May 2015. |
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A Musical history of "The Grand" in Folkestone Emre Aracı is in search of lost sounds as he takes us on a unique and personal tour of this charming old Edwardian Grand Hotel sitting on The Leas in Folkestone. Once the haunt of artists, writers, aristocrats and popular with members of the nobility and royalty, The Grand's faded elegance is recaptured through the eyes and accounts of some of its past residents including the Dowager Countess Lady Helen Radnor, Frederick Delius, Sir Paolo Tosti, Enrico Caruso, Sir Henry Wood, Sir Edward Elgar, Evelyn Waugh and Noel Coward. It was presented for the first time as "concert and conversation" at The Grand on 4 May 2015 with students and graduates from the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Trinity College of Music in London, featuring Tolga Atalay Ün (piano), Mevlan Mecid (violin), Hüseyin Gündoğdu (cello) and Panaretos Kyriatzidis (piano). |
Watch the documentary on the musical history of The Grand in Folkestone, prepared by Emre Aracı and published on youtube in May 2015: |
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"Sultans at the Opera" was first given in the historic library of the Theresianum in Vienna by mezzo-soprano Anna Pangalou, accompanied by pianist Dieter Paier and introduced by Emre Aracı on 25 April 2009, hosted by the Don Juan Archiv.
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Sultans at the opera
Emre Aracı takes us to the banks of the Bosphorus in Istanbul in the 19th century, when Italian opera became “the rage among Mussulmans” as reported in The Times and a brilliant opera house opened, where Gustave Flaubert saw Lucia di Lammermoor and the librettist Felice Romani heard the strains from La Straniera floating on the waters. This was a time when Giuseppe Donizetti, the eldest brother of Gaetano Donizetti, served the Ottoman rulers, Sultan Mahmud II and his successor Sultan Abdülmecid, as their master of music, penned Turkish songs and eventually rose to the rank of a “pasha”. On the streets of the city the sultans could be seen proceeding to the mosque in state to the strains of a Rossini march, as well as occasionally honouring the Naum Theatre, the Italian opera of Pera, with the princes to take up their seats in the imperial box. Ladies of the harem learned to play the pianoforte with instruments imported from Vienna, while the passion of the court for the ballroom music of Europe resulted in royal compositions by members of the imperial Ottoman family, including ruling sultans, in the genres of polkas, marches and waltzes, to the extent of some even appearing in the catalogues of European publishing houses. The Italian conductor Angelo Mariani directed two operatic seasons at Naum Theatre and commemorated his time there in a set of love songs, Rimembranze del Bosforo, now long forgotten, including Amami to the text of the celebrated Giacomo Casanova, while Richard Wagner, whose music he championed in Italy, enjoyed the patronage of Sultan Abdülaziz among the benefactors of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre. Apart from supporting Wagner, the Ottoman sultan also published several short dance pieces for the pianoforte in Italy, which also included Invitation à la Valse. Emre Aracı evokes this lost age through music and historic commentary and in doing so illuminates an unexpected and brief façade in Ottoman musical history. |
Naum Theatre
The Italian opera of 19th century Istanbul From the early 1840's until its destruction by a devastating fire in 1870, Naum Theatre was Istanbul's "Imperial Opera" supported by the sultans and host to the latest productions of famous works from the established repertoire by Bellini, Rossini, Donizetti and Verdi. Emre Aracı who has meticulously pieced together a history of this remarkable and little-known opera house of the near Orient in his recent book published in Turkey, takes us on an imaginary behind the curtains tour and in doing so exposes the Ottomans' passion for European music and drama. Emre Aracı delivered this lecture at the launch of Talent Unlimited Charity at the Brunei Lecture Theatre, School of Oriental and African Studies, London on 5 October 2010. |
Istanbul's long-lost Naum Theatre was host
to many artists in the 19th century |
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Watch the brief history of the Naum Theatre |
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