This tour is not operated by Songlines Music Travel and cannot be booked through us. If you are interested then you must contact the operator and purchase the holiday direct from Tangents - see below. We just wanted to draw your attention to it as we think it's a great trip.
Turkey Music Tour
18 days - May 9-26 2010
There are few countries as spectacular as Turkey for history and hospitality, for landscapes and food, and for magnificent music. We've been wanting to develop a Turkish music trip for a while but, to be honest, it would be pretty hard to beat the itinerary that Dore Stein has put together for Tangents
Rather than set-up a Songlines Music Travel trip in competition, I think it's better to recommend a top-quality alternative. I've known Dore for several years, we've discussed Turkish music and he's refined this trip over five years building-up relationships with many of the best musicians like clarinettist Selim Sesler, Alevi singer Sabahat Akkiraz and instrument inventor and percussionist Okay Temiz.
The Turkey Music Tour includes 10 concerts in 17 nights. It starts in Istanbul, one of the world's most fascinating cities, with a vibrant music scene. You get a real taste of the city from the Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofya and exquisite tiled mosques, to an instrument maker's workshop, back-street music clubs, plus a cruise on the Bosphorus.
Then Cappadocia with its extraordinary fairy-tale chimneys, rock-cut churches and some opt to go hot-air ballooning as Cappadocia is one of the best places on earth to try it. Here there's an intimate candle-lit concert in a 2000 year old cave church with local musicians.
Then to Konya and the mausoleum of the 13th century Sufi poet, Rumi, founder of the Mevlevi or Whirling Dervishes. Then to the amazing frozen waterfall of Pammukale ('cotton castle' in Turkish) and the ruins of Hierapolis - the largest necropolis in Asia Minor, Ephesus, one of the best-preserved Greco-Roman cities in the Mediterranean and a chance for some bathing in the Aegean.
Returning to Istanbul for a few days you can stock-up on music with a visit to the area where all the record companies have their wholesale outlets plus the final concerts. In short, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Dore Stein is a radio DJ and Turkish music enthusiast based in the San Francisco Bay area of the US, but the trip is costed from Istanbul. So you just need to get yourself there and there are easy plane or train options from the UK.
For a fuller itinerary, other details and bookings please go to: www.tangents.com/overview.html
This tour is not operated by Songlines Music Travel and cannot be booked through us. If you are interested then you must contact the operator and purchase the holiday direct from Tangents. We just wanted to draw your attention to it as we think it's a great trip.
