Turkey’s achievements in the sphere of classical music during the last hundred years are the result of planned efforts since the establishment of the Republic in 1923. At a meeting with the President of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in Ankara in 1927, Idil Biret’s mentor, the great German pianist Wilhelm Kempff heard him say “We are making wide ranging reforms in Turkey. We need to also make reforms in the field of music as otherwise, I am afraid, those being made in the other areas will remain incomplete”.* Then, during a parliamentary speech in 1934, Atatürk said “The speed with which a nation can transform itself is related to how well it can adapt to new styles of music”. The musicologist Emre Aracı explains that what Atatürk meant here by “new styles of music” was a suitable adaptation of the key principles of the western classical tradition – its harmony, melody and form – to the indigenous music of Turkey, thus creating a balanced fusion. Only after this transformation could the national music of Turkey possibly be elevated to a universal level. The music reform movement, started in the 1930s, based to a large extent on the recommendations of Paul Hindemith in the three reports he prepared during four visits to Turkey between 1935–37, continued in the next decades. Today in Turkey there are many conservatories and state orchestras, opera, ballet companies. There is an active classical music life in many cities with seasonal programs and with a proliferation of festivals with local and visiting orchestras, conductors, soloists. Turkish soloists, singers, conductors tour the country and the world giving concerts. In this respect, Turkey is like a desert oasis in the world of Islam being the only Moslem majority country where wester classical music flourishes to such a high degree. All this was the result of the vision and efforts of one man, Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.

* As told to Idil Biret by Wilhelm Kempff (Positano, Italy) 1982