Matt Alexander Hanson is a writer in Istanbul. He produces weekly and monthly features from across Turkey, Europe, the Middle East and the U.S., covering art, books, history, travel, and food. His work with various international newspapers and magazines is translated into Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and recently Ladino for El Amaneser, the last publication in the world entirely in the endangered Judeo-Spanish dialect. He is also an author of poetry and short stories, currently publishing a travelogue photobook, literary anthology and historical novel based on his research in the northwestern Greek city of Ioannina. His email is mhanson1717@yahoo.com
Two rising, powerhouse instrumentalists, guitarist Cenk Erdogan and drummer Mehmet Ikiz (aka ikiz) met in the blink of an eye in Istanbul and formed the Nu jazz duo LAHZA after the Turkish word for split-second.
Parisian choreographer Angelin Preljocaj sold out Europe's largest performing arts venue with his modern ballet, La Fresque (2016) on November 18th, walking onstage after the show to receive the Honorary Award from Istanbul's Theater Festival at Zorlu Center PSM.
His name evokes the pantheon of Russian ballet, Balanchine, Massine, Nijinsky, and he dons its legacy with an air as natural as breath, movement, and shadow.
The migrant, both voluntary and forced, is a recurring motif for dance choreographers who have ever sought to invigorate the traumas of exiled refugees, the discoveries of vagabond travelers and the insights of spiritual voyagers through plays of bodily movement.
A rare event at Fulya Sanat, home of Istanbul State Opera and Ballet's Modern Dance Theater Istanbul (MDTist), is the Mini-Fest, last produced for the stage in 2014, it returned 23-24 May last week with two technique classes, three workshops, a special show and six performances of new choreography.
There is a fragile eeriness to the opening measures of Aida (1871), as the composition by Verdi continues to draw all ears forward, especially as magnetically conducted by Daniele Rustioni for the 1,158th performance of the classic at The Metropolitan Opera.
Recently honored as a Lower East Side Community Hero, pianist Mimi Stern-Wolfe walked onstage on the evening of May 25th 2016 at the Center for Jewish History in NYC.
Momentous is a strong word, yet not so strong as carbon, the sixth element in the Periodic Table of Elements, inspiring the literary masterpiece known by the “scandalous” title, as its author Primo Levi confesses, The Periodic Table.
The Exalted, written by the celebrated poet and performer Carl Hancock Rux is told in the spirit of German expressionism, centering on the anarchist German-Jewish writer Carl Einstein, today considered a founding voice in the evolution of seminal Modernist art movements.