THE PHOENIX PROJECT: Rebuilding Hatay through Sounds and Music
In February 2023, a devastating 7.8 earthquake struck South-East Turkey. Over 50,000 people lost their lives. In Antioch, a city that has represented crossroads between European and Middle Eastern cultures for two millennia, 80% of buildings collapsed. As the slow process of resurrecting this glorious city and its culture commences, survivors are housed in safe but soulless container villages. This seriously threatens their sense of wellbeing, of community, of connection to place.
To address this, MiRAS conceived The Phoenix Project, which aims to inspire a sense of hope and connection in affected communities through a multimedia collaboration with British and Turkish musicians.
The project starts in Autumn 2024 with collecting sounds, stories and images from Antioch before and after the earthquake, ranging from tales about the secret meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra 2000 years ago to the sounds of the ney of the local flautist who died under the rubble protecting his daughter.
Through a series of workshops and rehearsals, first online and then in person, these will be integrated in a collectively created one-hour live and online audiovisual production moving from the history to the future of Antioch.
The production combines music and visuals representing memory, destruction, pain, hope, vision and resurrection. Bringing together creative musician Selin Sumbultepe’s band from Hatay with versatile UK musicians Nicola Woodward and the Ligeti Quartet, it includes local ensembles and music students from container schools to develop a new artistic language.
Under the leadership of female conductor Nisan Ak, the project embodies the creative energy and the resolve of this powerful place to present a vision that transcends the destruction, the trauma, and the despair of a city in ruins, sketching pathways for a return to normal and fulfilling lives for the people of Antioch.
The project will be performed live in Antioch on March 14th, 2025, and documented as a lasting monument to the heritage, the trauma, but especially the resilience of the people of Hatay rising from the rubble.
MIRAS’s “Phoenix Project” is a project funded under the British Council`s Grant Programme for Creative Collaborations 2024-2025. It is directed by Olcay Muslu, director of MiRAS, and Huib Schippers, Chair International Advisory Board. Mary Stakelum (Royal College of Music, London), and Amanda Bayley (Spa Bath University) will research the genesis and execution of the project.
THE PHOENIX PROJECT ARTISTIC TEAM
NISAN AK
Identified as one of the thirty most inspiring people under the age of thirty (30 under 30) by Forbes Turkey in 2019, Nisan Ak is a rapidly rising conductor from Istanbul. She has conducted orchestras on four different continents. Her recent engagements include conducting orchestras in cities such as Ankara, Pachuca, Atlanta, Columbia, Vienna, Pärnu, Washington DC, New York City, and more.
Ak is the founder and the music director of the Bruch Chamber Orchestra (BCO). The BCO has a unique position of being an all-female executive team, a rarity in the classical music world, all under 30. The BCO published its first album in 2022 and was listed in four worldwide playlists by Apple, hitting 100k listeners in under two months.
Besides her career in conducting, Ak is a public advocate for both the accessibility of classical music for all and women’s leadership in the workspace. She creates educational outreach videos in both English and Turkish and gives speeches about women’s visibility and leadership. These engagements include the “+90” channel of Voice of America, TedX talk in METU, short documentaries by CUNY, TRT Music, Haberturk TV, and Mercedes-Benz Turkey.
During the 2022-23 season, she conducted orchestras in cities such as Miami, Palm Beach, San Francisco, Bursa, Quebec and more. Her 2023-24 season highlights include closing Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra’s season with pianist ZeeZee and closing Antalya Symphony’s season with violinist Sara Dragan.
Currently, Dr. Nisan Ak holds an adjunct position at the College of Charleston. She is a graduate of the City University of New York’s Masters of Music program in conducting and earned a Doctorate degree in conducting from the University of South Carolina.
SELİN SÜMBÜLTEPE
Selin Sumbultepe was born in Hatay in 1986 and completed her undergraduate education at M.S.G.S University State Conservatory. She has released two studio albums independently to date. Her first album, ‘Cızgan’, was released in 2017, and her second album, ‘Ben Estim Sen Esme’, was released in 2021.
She combines her experiences with Middle Eastern melodies and Western music, and offers a blend of melodies that are especially based on her own cultural background. Selin Sumbultepe released her new EP “Hemhal” in 2024, produced by Lebanese indie and global music pioneer Zeid Hamdan.
Selin has performed at festivals all over Turkey such as the Istanbul Jazz Festival, Bursa Nilufer Music Festival and Bozcaada Jazz Festival. She has appeared in the Istanbul edition of The Arts Hour, which is broadcast on BBC Sounds as well as in Turkish media. Selin is passionate about taking place on European stages in the coming years and is looking to show herself outside of Turkey.
With her new EP, Selin Sumbultepe may have embraced new idioms, but the thing that has not changed is her storytelling and moving freely between genres. Therefore, Selin’s recorded and live work promise to continue to be interesting.
NICOLA WOODWARD
Nicola Woodward studied basic flute and piano at the Royal College of Music. She won the Eve Kisch flute award and the all-round musicianship award. Nicola has given recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room (as winner of the Park Lane Group Competition) and performed live on Classic FM. She has worked with the London Philharmonic and Bournemouth Orchestras and toured South America for the British Council.
Nicola has given many recitals at festivals in the UK, as well as performing extensively on the ‘Live Music Now!’ programme with her brother Justin and the flute/marimba duo. She has also regularly hosted the Prince of Wales at Highrove, Windsor and Buckingham Palace. She recently recorded Koechlin’s 96 wonderful unaccompanied pieces ‘Chants de Nectaire’ on the Hoxa label, and the project was named ‘Classical CD of the Week’ in the Guardian.
Her love of folk music has led her to record a CD of classical music inspired by the folk music of the British Isles, to play and sing Flamenco music and to co-found the Rockhampton Folk Festival, now in its tenth year. Nicola is a musician who believes in bringing music to the wider communities, particularly to disadvantaged groups, and is currently working on a World Music project called ‘Flute Without Frontiers’ to introduce folk styles to young musicians. Woodward currently directs a community choir and is actively involved in teaching in local schools.
LIGETI QUARTET
Freya Goldmark, Violin – Patrick Dawkins, Violin – Richard Jones, Viola – Val Welbanks, Cello
The Ligeti Quartet has been at the forefront of modern and contemporary music since its formation in 2010, breaking new ground through innovative programming and championing of today’s most exciting composers and artists. This ensemble has been making waves between classical, contemporary, and electronic music worldwide in countries such as the UK, Canada, United States, China, Germany, Denmark, and France.
Highlights for the ensemble in 2024 include the live US premiere of their latest Anna Meredith album ‘Nuc’ at New York City’s Bang on a Can Festival, a tour showcasing electroacoustic music by various composers at the CrossCurrents Festival in Birmingham (UK) paired with the sister location in Bogota, Colombia, and the release of a new recording with critically acclaimed singer Lotte Betts-Dean and guitarist James Girling. The quartet has also been selected to represent the UK at Classical Next in May.
Having played at landmark venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Curtis Institute, Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Barbican Hall, and Kings Place, the quartet also enjoy performing in more unusual places, previous venues including museums, galleries, theatres, pubs, planetariums, a fishing boat, and a cave. They have commissioned many new works and have collaborated with artists from all types of musical backgrounds including Anna Meredith, Xenia Pestova, Elliot Galvin, Kerry Andrew, Laura Jurd, Meilyr Jones, Neil Hannon, Seb Rochford, Shabaka Hutchings, Sean Noonan, Shed 7 and Submotion Orchestra.
The quartet’s most recent album ‘Nuc’ (2023, Mercury KX) is a celebration of Anna Meredith’s music for string quartet, including arrangements by the quartet’s viola player Richard Jones. “An album that continually surprises and enlightens” (BBC Music). Their tour of the album in 2023 was supported by Music In The Round and Arts Council England. Their previous album Songbooks Vol. 1 (2020, Nonclassical), part of a long-standing collaboration with award-winning composer Christian Mason, explores the way in which the acoustic properties of the string quartet emulate the human voice through Mason’s use of extended techniques and unique sound-worlds. “Magnificently vivid performances… sheer unadulterated exuberance” (Gramophone).
The quartet named themselves after the Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006), inspired by his kaleidoscopic musical outlook and tireless invention. 2023 included many concerts celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth. They curated the “Ligeti Day” at Aldeburgh Festival (23 June 2023) during which they performed two concerts of György Ligeti’s music and the world premieres of 15 new commissions including Entasis by Lukas Ligeti (supported by Britten Pears Arts, BBC Radio 3, the Vaughan Williams Foundation, and Bourgie Hall).
This ensemble has been a champion of many British awards and national grants through their promotion of new music and community work. They are regular winners of the Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grant for projects such as their Nuc album tour and Workout! project initiated during the pandemic in which they workshopped and recorded 100 new pieces by 100 composers from around the world. They have also received awards from the Vaughan Williams Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation, and Britten-Pears Foundation for new commissions and world premiere performances of works by Robin Haigh, Christian Mason, and Tom Green. Other honours have included the Emerging Excellence Award from the UK Musician’s Benevolent Fund, The Felix Foundation Grant, the Tillett Trust Grant, and winners of London’s St John Smith’s Square Young Artist Scheme.
The Ligeti Quartet are passionate about music teaching, supporting emerging composers, and taking new music to diverse audiences. They have held residencies at the universities of Cambridge (2016-19), Sheffield (2016-20), and Goldsmiths, University of London (2018-21), and Nottingham High School (2020-2022). Their educational work has also transpired worldwide with students from Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music at the Glenn Gould School, the University of Montreal, and with annual visits to Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Music. In addition, the UK Arts Council 2019 grant was awarded to the ensemble towards educational work with children with hearing impairment and special education needs.
