“Bergama Kolektif Hayal Gücü Müzik Merkezi (BKHMM)” will be an educational habitat for all the listeners, musicians and most importantly to all those who are open to arts, life and nature and wish to bring their personal stories to Bergama.
The fields of focus at BKHMM include “Collective Consciousness through sound, music and improvization as well as through art” and themes of collaboration.
Workshops will be lead by teaching authorities on performance, composition and music such as Reggie Washington, Timuçin Şahin, Ben Van Gelder, Owen Hart Jr., Joris Teepe and Ali Perret, as well as Alp Turaç, who is one of the most important sound engineers in Turkey and Hülya Tunçağ, who is a prominent radio producer and music writer. Both adults and children will be able to attend these multi-purpose and interactive classes.
BKHMM will open the doors for new perspectives on questions like “Who constitutes as a member of the music audience, what are their responsibilities?” through “Art of Listening” classes while focusing on the topic of actively making music.
BKHMM consists of 4 inter-disciplinary units: Bergama Child Musicians Collective, “Art Of Listening” Workshops, Workshops for Instrumentalists and Jazz Club.
Unit 1: Workshops for Instrumentalists
An August filled with workshops on different musical perspectives awaits our city whose DNA is infused with music. We present local musicians from Bergama and music lovers from all around the country the opportunity to work with world-famous jazz musicians and to benefit from their experience and valuable knowledge. There will be no age or level limitations for these collective group classes which will focus on improvization, instruments, musical imagination and composition.
Unit 2: Bergama Child Musicians Collective
Bergama Municipality, having proven that it is possible to construct a civilization without damaging nature or the future, undoubtedly takes its pushing power mainly from our children.
Our municipality salutes the summer with a project that will utilize the imagination of the children and semiotics while focusing on music, arts and cooperation.
Bergama Child Musicians Collective (BCMK) will accept children between the ages of 7-12. BCMK aims to strengthen the interest of our children in sounds and music, while offering them a habitat in which their imagination and susceptibility to arts can flourish. The collective will focus on classical music, development of jazz and improvisatory music, auditory awareness and awareness about how non-human beings perceive sound, in addition to instrumental classes.
Unit 3: “Art Of Listening” Workshops
The act of hearing allows us to realize the dynamics between the source of the sound and the sound itself. The act of listening, on the other hand, is an active and intellectual process that involves the act of hearing. This process is directly related to the habits that have been accumulated through our personal histories and natures as well as the history of mankind and generations.
The “Art of Listening” classes will bring new interpretations and perspectives on who the music audience is, and what their responsibilities are.
The classes will define in detail what sound is as the building block of music, why and how we listen, what we listen to, while comparing the reactions we give to new sounds and musical concepts with those we are comfortable and familiar with.
We will try to think collectively with the musicians who will give live performances and focus on the physical, mental and emotional aspects of the instrument-musician relationship.
We will try to understand the listening habits of musicians during performances and how these relate to the flow of the music. “The Art of Listening” classes will also provide a multi-disciplinary approach through “History of Jazz” and “Sound Recording Technologies and Their History”. We will ask questions to each other and try to find the answers, and focus on different improvization approaches and compositional theories of 20th century. The workshops will aim to evolve into a habitat in which concurrent perspectives will be discussed.
Unit 4: Bergama Collective Jazz Club-Performance Platform
Week-long “Jam Sessions” will be organized for our children and adult musicians who will intensively work with prominent musicians so that they can experience what performing on the stage is like. Adults who participate in “Workshops for Instrumentalists” and children who participate in “Bergama Child Musicians Collective” will be able to demonstrate what they have learnt during the “Jazz Club” jam sessions, as well as making music together, listening to one another while playing, musical interraction and musical imagination. This will provide an interractive platform between the participants.
Teachers:
Timuçin Şahin: Artistic and Educational Director, guitar, composition, improvization
Ben Van Gelder: Saxophone
Reggie Washington: Electric Bass
Ali Perret: Piano
Apostolos Sideris: Double bass
Owen Hart Jr.: Drums
Joris Teepe: Double bass
Alp Turaç: Sound and recording engineer
