The Notes Live On: Ottoman Songs with European Notation in their 150th Year
Join Corpus Research Fellow Audrey Wozniak with Hüseyim Kıyak (voice) and Dilan Dereli (piano) in the Corpus Christi Chapel on 25 November at 19.30.
About the performance
For much of the Ottoman period, musical notation was rare, and repertoire was transmitted primarily through oral tradition. The earliest attempts to record
music in writing include the Ebced system, based on Arabic letters and used only in select circles, and later the Hamsparum notation created by Ottoman Armenian musician Hamparsum Limonciyan, which gained wider use in the eighteenth century. By the second half of the nineteenth century, however, Western staff notation began to take hold, coinciding with the spread of printing technologies.
From 1875 onward, printed collections of Ottoman works in Western notation began to appear, encompassing genres such as pęsrev, march, tango, şarki, and kanto. These publications are notable not only for their use of European notation but also for their inclusion of piano accompaniments—often written by European musicians residing in Istanbul. As such, they stand among the most vivid examples of Western influence in late Ottoman music, both through notation and instrumentation. The illustrated covers of these scores also hold considerable significance in the history of graphic design and print culture.
Marking the 150th anniversary of these publications, this concert revives many works in this repertoire for the first time in over a century. The performance features Hüseyin Kıyak, vocal artist of the Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir; Dilan Dereli, Lecturer in Piano at Bilkent University; and Audrey Wozniak, violinist and Early Career Research Fellow in Music at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge.
Through both performance and an accompanying presentation, the event will highlight the historical, musical, and visual significance of these long-forgotten scores—once again bringing to life the impacts of these technological transformations and entangled encounters between European and Ottoman cultural influences.
About the musicians
Hüseyin Kıyak began his music studies at the Denizli Municipal Conservatory at the age of twelve. In 2007, he passed the TRT Istanbul Radio Youth Choir exams, where he had the opportunity to work with Serap Mutlu Akbulut. During his undergraduate studies in Turkish Language and Literature at Marmara University, he enrolled in the Ottoman Period Comparative Music Department at Istanbul University as a second university. He studied voice with Şamil Gökberk, piano with Mehru Ensari, tanbur with Murat Aydemir, and repertoire with Tülin Yakarçelik, Abidin Gerçeker, Mustafa Doğan Dikmen, and Çiğdem Yarkın. He completed his master's degree at the Institute of Turkic Studies in 2013. He founded the Marmara University Turkish Music Ensemble in 2008 and conducted it until 2011. Between 2012 and 2014, Kıyak participated in the activities and concerts of the Istanbul University Turkish Music Executive Committee, conducted by Tülûn Korman.
Kıyak studied Hamparsum notation with Varujan Zilciyan and Byzantine notation with Miltiadis Pappas. He focused on musical culture and history, benefiting from researchers such as Bülent Aksoy, Murat Bardakçı, İncila Bertuğ, Ersu Pekin, and Cemal Ünlü. He worked as an editor for several publishing houses, publishing various music, history, and art books. In 2015, Kıyak began working as a singer with the Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir. In 2016, he worked on research and Ottoman text translations for the Tanburi Cemil Bey Collection, published by Kalan Music. That same year, he translated Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil's famous novel Aşk-ı Memnu into modern Turkish and published by Everest Publications. In 2016, he created the "Gölgede
Kalanlar" (Those Left in the Shadow) project with young musicians from the Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir and organized concerts with this ensemble, of which he is the artistic director.
In 2016, he served as a presenter and scriptwriter for the program series "Immortal Composer Tanburi Cemil Bey," broadcast on Turkish National Television (TRT). Between 2018 and 2023, he conducted archive activities within the Istanbul and Music Research Program (İMAP), established within the Istanbul Research Institute and Pera Museum. Between 2015 and 2017, he participated in Turkish music programs broadcast on Açık Radyo (Open Radio). Since 2017, he has produced and presented programs at the Kubbealtı Academy Culture and Arts Foundation. He has also performed as a narrator and soloist in the program series "Boğaziçi Moonlight," "Ayın Makamı," "Makam Seyri," and "Dede Efendi Meşkleri." Between 2021 and 2025, he prepared and presented narrated music programs on TRT Istanbul Radio.
In 2022, he worked as a visiting lecturer at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Since 2021, he has been teaching at the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory, and since 2024, he has been teaching at Marmara University. In addition to his various academic publications on musicology, he has published Tanburi Cemil Bey through a Hundred Years of Text (2017); Mesud Cemil through His Plectrum, Bow, and Pen (2018); and Münir Nureddin Selçuk, the Vast Voice of Istanbul, co-authored with İncila Bertuğ, in 2022. He annotated and prepared Sermet Muhtar's music-related articles for publication under the title Music of Old Istanbul, published by Pan Publishing in 2025. He continues his doctoral studies in the Department of Musicology and Music Theory at the Turkish Music State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University.
Born in Ankara, pianist Dilan Dereli began her piano training in 2001 with Polish pianist Halina Andrejewska. While studying at TED Ankara College in 2004, she passed the talent exams at the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory, beginning her academic piano career with Prof. Y. Eşim Alkaya. She graduated top of her high school class and third in her undergraduate studies. In 2008, she studied with Prof. Aquiles Delle-Vigne at the Salzburg University Mozarteum Summer Academy in Austria, and in 2010, she studied with Prof. Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden in Nancy, France. In 2011, she spent a month at the Gümüşlük Festival Academy as part of the International Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival, studying with Ilya Itin, Peter Katin, Misha Dacic, Julian Gorus, Gülsin Onay, and İbrahim Yazıcı. Throughout her academic career, she attended masterclasses by Oxana Yablonskaya, Mehmet Okonşar, and İdil Biret. She studied individually with Hatıra Emrahlı. Throughout her middle and high school years, she took music theory, music history, and improvisation lessons from renowned Turkish composer İlhan Baran. In 2012, she joined the Doğuş Children's Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rengim Gökmen, giving concerts in Ankara and Eskişehir.
In 2013, she attended the Vienna University of Music and Kunst as a one-year exchange student, studying piano with Klaus Sticken, chamber music with Johannes Kropfitsch, and piano accompaniment with David Arronson. In 2015, she gave a live concert broadcast on TRT 3 Ankara Radio as part of the International Bartók Music Festival and also took part in the festival's organization. After her undergraduate studies, she taught vocal accompaniment and piano lessons at the Ankara University State Conservatory between 2015 and 2018, and worked as a stage pianist. Throughout her conservatory education, she gave both recitals and chamber music concerts in many cities, including Ankara, Istanbul, Konya, and Izmir. In September 2019, she completed her master's degree with high honors, continuing her studies with Prof. Yımım Alkaya Y ener. In 2020, Dilan Dereli crossed paths with soprano Burcu Hancı and performed with her for the first time in Bodrum. Then, in November 2021, she performed three of Muammer Sun's works for voice and piano with soprano Burcu Hancı as part of the Muammer Sun Memorial Concert organized by the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory. In March 2022, she recorded these three works, written for voice and piano, with soprano Burcu Hancı and bass-baritone Burak Bilgili at the Istanbul Arter Art Gallery. The album was released on all digital platforms by the Gloss Music label.
In May and June 2023, she first performed at the Pera Palas with soprano Burcu Hancı and bass Teyfik Rodos at the "5th Denizbank First Screenplay First Film Competition" Award Ceremony. She then gave a concert with soprano Burcu Hancı at Kadir Has University. In November 2022, she joined the Agora Symphony Orchestra and performed with world-renowned Italian tenor Alessandro Safina at the Ankara ATO Congresium. In May 2023, she performed at the Süreyya Opera House with soprano Burcu Hancı as part of the "Coffee Concerts" series. In September 2023, she was invited to Bayburt and performed a concert with soprano Burcu Hancı and Serhan Bali at the "Harman Sonu" event organized by the Kenan Yavuz Ethnography Museum. That same month, she was a guest on the program "Başrola Kadın" (Women in the Leading Role), produced by Zeliha Tekin Şahin on TRT 3 Radio and hosted by Sinem Yıldırım Yalçın. She performed as a guest artist with the Eskişehir Municipality Symphony Orchestra in Istanbul, under the baton of conductor Rengim Gökmen, alongside Zülfü Livaneli, Görkem Ezgi Yıldırım, Zeynep Halvaşi, and Teyfik Rodos. In December, she performed once again at tenor Alessandro Safina's Ankara concert. In November 2024, she founded the Muse Art Collective with architect Övgün Ateşoğlu in Adana, aiming to breathe new life into the art world. Dilan Dereli, who performed the highly acclaimed opening concert with Burcu Hancı, gave her second concert for the brand in January 2024 with bassist Teyfik Rodos. Then, on March 8, International Women's Day, she performed with world-renowned cellist Jamal Aliyev at Denizbank's Galeri Deniz art gallery. On March 23, she was invited to Eskişehir by the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Symphony Orchestra to perform with Zülfü Livaneli.
On March 27, she performed with soprano Burcu Hancı and narrator-baritone Serhan Bali at Decollage Art Space in Suadiye, Istanbul. On April 4, Dilan Dereli performed her "Schubertiade" program with Serhan Bali at the Muse Art Collective and on April 7, she performed the same program at the Mozarthaus in Ankara. Dilan Dereli, who organized a total of six concerts throughout the year under the Muse Art Collective brand, performed the season-closing concert with soprano Burcu Hancı and bassist Teyfik Rodos due to popular demand.
In July 2024, she appeared as a guest on the program "Classics at Sea," prepared and presented by Serhan Bali and Can Erol, where she performed C. Debussy's "Estampes." In August, she performed with Burcu Hancı and Burak Bilgili as part of the Coffee Concerts at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum. On the same day, she presented the same concert program in Üsküdar at the invitation of the Üsküdar Municipality. In September, she performed with Serhan Bali at the Nesin Mathematics Village in Şirince. In October 2024, she performed with mezzo-soprano Nesrin Gönüldağ at the "Shining People Conference" organized by Oggusto in Istanbul. In November 2024, she founded a chamber music group, "Terra Trio," with violinist Bensu Ünsal and cellist Ezgi Yağmur Bilgin, inspired by the depths of nature. The artists, who gave their first concert as a trio at the Ankara Mozarthaus, now include contemporary Turkish music in their programs.
In December 2024, they performed with Soprano Burcu Hancı and Tenor Çınar Onur Öner at the Antalya Re22 Culture and Arts. Their first concert of 2025 was at the Erimtan Museum with Soprano Burcu Hancı and Bass-Baritone Burak Bilgili. They then performed with Serhan Bali at the Ankara Mozarthaus and the newly formed chamber music group Terra Trio in Ankara and Bursa. In March, they took part in the program "Virtuosity with Muhammed Yıldırır," prepared and presented by violin virtuoso Muhammed Yıldırır. In May, they took part in the "Film Music" project with violin virtuoso Can Özhan, giving concerts in both Adana and Antalya. In addition to her piano career, Dilan Dereli has been teaching piano at Bilkent University's Early Music Education Department since 2017. She is also a Prodigies Music instructor. She has also been a certified NLP trainer since 2017 and is a graduate of Anadolu University's Media and Communication Department.
Dr. Audrey M. Wozniak, Early-Career Research Fellow at Corpus Christi College, is an interdisciplinary researcher and genre-defying violinist exploring how people make sense of identity and belonging through sound and space. Her research has broached contexts ranging from the cultural diplomacy efforts of Turkish diasporic community music groups to the path of the world-famous Zildjian cymbal from seventeenth-century Ottoman military ensembles into European orchestras and American jazz bands. Her ongoing projects include a monograph examining the outsized role of the state in producing the dominant “amateur-professional” dichotomy underpinning the institutions and hierarchies of today’s Turkish music industry as well as a multimedia exhibition centering the cymbal to how material objects mediate the institutions of modernity. Much of Wozniak’s work is defined by engagement with performance ethnography, artistic research, and public outreach as a musician-scholar working in the creative industries of Türkiye, the UK, Europe, and the United States.
Wozniak received her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology with a secondary concentration in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. She is Senior Research Associate at the Orient-Institut Istanbul and has held fellowships from the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Fulbright-Hays DDRA program, Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations, and the British Institute at Ankara, among others. She has published scholarly articles in the Journal of the Society for American Music, Music & Politics, Urban People, and the Applied Linguistics Review, Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs as well as journalistic writing in venues such as China Dialogue, TimeOut Hong Kong, and ABC News. She also holds Master’s degrees in Politics and Communication (LSE) and Violin Performance (Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance), and a Bachelor’s in Music and East Asian Studies (Wellesley College). She spent a year learning from traditional musical masters in Indonesia, China, and Türkiye on a 2014-2015 Thomas J. Watson Fellow, and more recently was appointed Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University's I Tatti Center for Renaissance Studies in Italy and Guest Researcher at University of Heidelberg's Collective Research Centre 1671 Heimat(en).
Audrey is an accomplished performer and experienced facilitator of cross-cultural artistic programming. Trained as a Western classical violinist, she has spent nearly a decade learning Turkish classical makam-based music through working with master musicians. She is the creator and host of "Türkiye'yi Dinliyorum [I'm Listening to Türkiye]," a musical travel documentary series on Turkish National Television in which she interviews and performs alongside eminent culture-bearers of the nation's diverse musical traditions. In addition to being featured by Marie Claire Türkiye and Bloomberg HT, she has served as an academic expert and musical guest on five Turkish National Radio and Television (TRT) programs and curates a popular social media channel (@audreywoz) featuring educational and artistic content related to her cross-cultural research and musical work. For more, please visit Audrey's website.