Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra

Seventeen players began rehearsing in Adana in the closing months of 1991; on 5 January 1992, the anniversary of the city's liberation, they gave a first concert in the Metropolitan Municipality Concert Hall and Turkey had its fourth state symphony orchestra. Formally established in 1988, the ensemble has stayed close to the region that names it. It plays in schools, villages and prisons as well as in its own hall, and two of its larger projects have looked directly at Turkish material: the Harput Symphony, built on folk melodies from Elazığ, and a series of symphonic settings of classical Turkish instrumental works made with the tanbur player Murat Salim Tokaç. It has toured to Germany, Japan, Azerbaijan, Syria and Cyprus, recording Tchaikovsky while in Japan, and has accompanied soloists including İdil Biret and Charlie Siem.