Ali Doğan Gönültaş Trio / Maviş Güneşer Trio / Ahmet Aslan

15:00 / Elbphilharmonie Recital Hall
As in many forms of Kurdish music, the Ali Doğan Gönültaş Trio recalls everyday life in the shape of workmen’s songs, the rhythmic dances known as Govend and even types of prayer for future generations. An important function, especially in a non-existent state like Kurdistan, whose language is often suppressed. The singer Maviş Güneşer and her trio perform Kurdish laments from Dersim, while singer Ahmet Aslan accompanies his peaceful, melancholy songs with the instrument di-tar, which he developed himself: a combination of a classical guitar and the long-necked lute bağlama. He sings in the Zazaki language of Eastern Turkey, focusing in the process on the mythical origin of his Alevite faith.

19:30 / Elbphilharmonie Recital Hall – View concert
The reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia is symbolised in the evening by the duo of saz virtuoso Emre Gültekin and Vardan Hovanissian on the duduk, a type of oboe. Astare Artner sings old mystic and spiritual songs in the Alevite tradition in her mother tongue Zazaki, Turkish and Armenian accompanying herself on her tembûr. The concert is brought to an end by the ensemble led by the singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Metin und Kemal Kahraman. These two artists began making field recordings of Kurdish songs in their native Dersim in the 1990s to document this musical tradition, which is in danger of dying out.

17:30 / Elbphilharmonie Kaistudio 1 – View lecture
Martin Greve, who has been studying the music from Dersim for many years, now presents it in a lecture, focusing especially on its religious significance. He addresses the loss of traditions in the 1930s, the influences of urbanisation, migration and medialisation in Dersim and finally the »Dersim nostalgia« that arose from the 1990s onwards, especially in the Kurdish diaspora.