The program for the 43rd Istanbul Music Festival, which will take place between May 31 and June 29, was announced on Tuesday.

The festival director Yesim Gurer Oymak said the event would host two world and three Turkish premieres.

“The festival will host close to 600 local and international artists, including (…) Yuri Bashmet, Boris Berezovsky, Emmanuelle Haim, Angela Hewitt and Yuja Wang as well as some of the world’s leading ensembles,” she said in a press conference in Istanbul.

Around the theme “Cultural Landscapes,” Oymak said the festival will boast 27 concerts, consisting of symphony and chamber orchestras, vocal concerts and recitals.

The festival will once again be held in different venues, she added.

In addition to the Heybeliada Hagia Triada Monastery, apart in the festival for the first time, some of the other festival venues include the Hagia Irene Museum, St. Antoine Church, Sureyya Opera House, Austrian Cultural Office, Is Sanat Concert Hall and Lutfi Kirdar Conference and Exhibition Center.

Also speaking at the press meeting, Canan Ercan Celik, secretary general of the Borusan Kocabiyik Foundation, which has sponsored the festival since 2006, said the theme of “Cultural Landscapes” will remind the audience once again the necessity of embracing the sensitivity and tolerance that are essential to the multicultural community.

“Investing in promoting music in our country for it to be appreciated by a wider community and in facilitating music to be bridges between us and different cultures are among our primary missions as part of our endeavor to support arts and cultures,” she said.

The festival also continues to support young musicians.

In effect, a young flute soloist, to be determined by a jury following nationwide auditions, will gain the opportunity to give a concert with the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory Symphony Orchestra.

The 43rd Istanbul Music Festival, which is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Istanbul Governorship and the Istanbul Municipality, is held under the leading sponsorship of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV).

The festival’s opening ceremony will take place at the Lutfi Kirdar Conference and Exhibition Center on May 31.

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