Dear Readers,

As Makam Music Magazine, we wish you a happy new year with health, peace and bliss in 2020. We salute our third anniversary with this very issue 9. Once again, we are more than happy for offering you different colors and tastes in music with satisfying and genuine contents.

This issue welcomes Ara Dinkjian, a man of music, who is very close but is also beyond the ocean as he continues his career in New York. He opened his heart and showed the courtesy of answering our questions about music. Indispensable for radio and television shows, Mustafa Sağyaşar is our guest for the “Memories” section of the magazine and he told us about his 67 years in art. The doyen researcher and author Murat Meriç told us about “Hayat Dudaklarda Mey”, his praiseworthy book that narrates the stories of the songs from the Ottoman to the present.

Mehmet Şükrü Alkan, the head of the mehter platoon, told about “Mehter”, the most ancient military orchestra in the world. We talked with A. İmre Tüylü, who organizes a festival after her late sister and well-known harpist Ceren Necipoğlu who we lost in a plane crash ten years ago. The “Ceren Necipoğlu Istanbul International Harp Festival” will be held on January 15. Go through our pages for details. The researcher Burak Süme released his most recent work on the “Benliyan Troupe and Leblebici Horhor Ağa Operetta”.

Our source of pride, the conductors Nisan Ak, Arya Su Gülenç, and Kaan Baysal with their widely acclaimed around-the-globe achievements, Enver Mete Aslan&Ricardo Moyano with their new album, Refik Hakan Talu with his wide range of music knowledge, and Areti Ketime, a prominent singer who sings, with unique renditions, our songs that are common to the neighbor Greece will be all our guests for this issue.

With warmest regards, Mehmet Şerif Sağıroğlu