{"id":3038,"date":"2021-12-13T12:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T09:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.istanbulberlin.com\/?p=3038"},"modified":"2021-12-13T12:02:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T09:02:36","slug":"betin-gunes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.istanbulberlin.com\/en-de\/betin-gunes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Composer Whose Heart Beats with Music: Betin G\u00fcne\u015f"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article will sadly fall short of communicating the energy and high spirits coming across in conversation with Betin G\u00fcne\u015f. It is likewise impossible to share the melodies that, during our interview, he would play between replies on his piano that was within arm\u2019s reach. Still, I\u2019m glad that it will at least open up a space for you to encounter this composer, conductor and musician who believes with all his heart in the uniting and healing power of music, who derives his high spirits from it and whose heart, in short, beats with music. I welcome you to the world of Betin G\u00fcne\u015f, where Western lutes and the tambur, qanun, and ney preside side by side and artists such as Beethoven and Mozart coexist with A\u015f\u0131k Veysel and Dede Efendi.<\/p>\n

Interview by Sedef \u0130lgi\u00e7 and Nazl\u0131 Sa\u011fd\u0131\u00e7 Pilcz<\/p>\n

Text by Sedef \u0130lgi\u00e7<\/span><\/p>\n

Edited by N\u00fckhet Polat<\/p>\n

Translated to English by Zeynep Beler<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Istanbul-born, a child of the Bosphorus. I grew up in Beykoz and studied at the Istanbul State Conservatory,\u201d begins Betin G\u00fcne\u015f, who speaks of his instructors with reverence. After graduating from the conservatory, he also completed studies in journalism, as \u201cmusicians get no respect in Turkey\u201d. Then he promptly arrived in Cologne \u201cat the Cologne University of Music\u201d and completed studies in four departments there. He has lived in Germany ever since.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Betin G\u00fcne\u015f, with his permissiion.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cTo keep it brief, you are speaking to the only Turkish composer with twenty three symphonies under his belt. Even Beethoven died after the ninth one,\u201d he jokes. Mr. G\u00fcne\u015f is not only a composer; although his main expertise is piano, he is also a conductor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The reason for his staying in Germany may be the value that is placed in music and art there. \u201cTheir former president Walter Scheel came up to me after I played a concert in Bonn and said to me, just imagine: \u2018I would be willing to exchange my profession with yours just to be able to play the piano like you.\u2019 Enough said. That\u2019s the level they see art on. They value you, when you say you\u2019re a composer; they think of Beethoven, Mozart, Stravinsky.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

In Turkey, on the other hand, it is both more difficult to have access to a piano and to feel that one is valued in this way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h6>\n

My name is Betin G\u00fcne\u015f. I have a German ID as well, but that\u2019s where the similarity ends. If I cut myself, I might bleed the Bosphorus. Still, when I conduct the state symphony orchestra I make a fraction of what my students in Germany do. Opportunities are limited for Turks.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I Thought of the Turkish Chamber Orchestra as the National Team<\/b><\/p>\n

Since 1988, Betin G\u00fcne\u015f has been working as chief conductor of the Cologne Symphony Orchestra and Ensemble Mondial Chamber Orchestra. The Turkish Chamber Orchestra, on the other hand, he founded by bringing together the soloists of the two orchestras; it is comprised of musicians he has performed with for over twenty-five years. He opted for a chamber orchestra because it would travel easily.<\/span><\/p>\n