The following is excerpted from an article published in Hurriyet Daily News, April 3, 2010.
Turkey’s first jazz department has been established at Hacettepe University in Ankara with an enthusiastic high-profile backing from the homeland of jazz, the United States.
“The introduction of jazz education, an American classical music, into Turkey’s most prestigious conservatory as a specialized field is truly very important event,” Emre Kartari, founder of the department, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review (…)
The department was established within the university’s Ankara State Conservatory and is scheduled to recruit its first jazz students in October. The key supporter of the project is the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, which helped the university bring scholars from Fulbright (…) , a U.S. alumni membership organization that promotes international educational and cultural exchange.
The opening ceremony of the department (…) was held Thursday with the participation of three members from the U.S. Congress. Considering the move a legacy of the late Ahmet Ertegun, founder of Atlantic Records and credited with a significant role in promoting African American music, especially jazz, in the U.S.; participants of the event likewise paid tribute to his contributions to jazz music (…) The department, which will offer a five-year university education, including one year of preparatory classes, will receive 10 students in its first year but the number will increase. The department’s first Fulbright scholar will be George "Skip" Gailes, co-founder of the jazz department at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
“It is really important to establish relationships among people through such projects no matter they are educational or artistic or musical. They really help us to have much better understanding of each other irrespective of the politics,” said Congresswoman Donna Edwards. “When you connect cultures of countries you connect research, education, music, science and history, which I think is the best sort of diplomacy,” Edwards said.
Lincoln McCurdy, president of Turkish Coalition of America, which sponsored the congressional delegation’s trip to Turkey, said the move will bring Turkish people and American people closer.
