University of Kent Canterbury Kent CT2 7NB
A captivating show that takes the audience on a journey into the heart of Anatolia.
Using traditional and original songs from her highly-regarded album Rüya (Dream), Olcay (pronounced Oldjai) explores the music and cultures of a region that often remains a mystery, even mysterious, but has always been a melting pot of cultures and has always been musical.
Singing in Turkish and Kurdish, both rhythmical and deeply touching, Olcay takes us from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, meeting wandering ashik poet-bards and reaching the areas adjoining war-torn Syria once heavily populated by Armenians, to revisit her own Kurdish and Alevi roots, inviting us through the music to explore our own roots and changing identities.
The concert take place the three days before Newroz, the Spring Equinox festival celebrated by Kurds and other communities across Central Asia and which provides a focus for community identity and New Year hopes.