MM Concerts - Cengiz Arslanpay plays Thin Air (comp. Calliope Tsoupaki)

At the special request of Music Meeting, which has joined the Festivals for Compassion initiative, Cengiz Arslanpay will perform the piece 'Thin Air' by the Greek composer Calliope Tsoupaki. Each of the participating festivals has the piece performed, so that it travels through festival land as a kind of musical relay. If you take a look at YouTube, you will see that most of the performances are rather 'classic' in nature.

Cengiz chose to embed the piece in the structure of Ottoman court music and provided it with an improvised prelude based on a maqam that matches the main melody. Performing Tsoupaki's composition on the ney was, however, quite a challenge.

Cengiz: "There are notes for which you have to keep at least four finger holes partially open, while two already require a lot of practice. By switching from a high to a very low ney halfway through the rehearsal process – which I did because I thought it sounded much better on that – I made it even more difficult for myself because on such a low ney the finger holes are further apart. But of course I am very proud that we finally succeeded.”

Line-up

Cengiz Arslanpay
 - Ney & effects

Discover more! 

Get to know the artist behind the music by checking out the Music Meeting Talks interview with Cengiz following this concert.