June 15, 2024 • 21 mins
İlkim Tongur joins Brianna for the Season 2 finale! Join us as we talk soundscapes, not taking innovation seriously, drawing the trajectory of music and more.
Featured music:
Yakamoz
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome to Notes of the North Talks, a series where we get to know our local Canadian
(00:10):
musical talent.
Today, I'm here with İlkim Tongur
Thank you so much İlkim for joining me today.
Thank you for having me, Brianna.
I'm excited for our interview.
So to start things off, where are you joining us from today?
Where in Canada do you call home?
I am in Calgary and I lived here for the last 12 years, so I think it's fair that I call
(00:34):
Calgary home.
Before I lived in Winnipeg for a few years, then I came here, yes.
Beautiful.
Is there any place else that holds a special place in your heart?
Well, Istanbul is.
That's where I grew up.
And it is a very special city in itself.
(00:56):
Once called the Queen of the Cities, right where East and West literally meets, like
half of the cities in Asia, half in Europe.
So very interesting texture of people and pieces.
Beautiful.
What first drew you into composition?
(01:17):
Did it start off right away into composition or did you start off playing an instrument?
Well, I started playing piano and then I started to play oboe.
In Turkey, we had state conservatories that start in grade six for professional musicianship
education.
So it's like a music gifted schools.
(01:38):
So I started there.
I played both piano and oboe.
I first started piano like when I was five.
And when I was finishing high school, I wanted to become a conductor.
And the education for that in that school included composition lessons too.
So it started like that.
And I grew fond of composing more than conducting initially.
(02:03):
And yeah, here I am 30 years later.
Awesome.
How would you describe your style for a first time listener?
I have a mixture of a style because the beginning part of my career started in Turkey.
And then I was in my early 30s when I came to Canada.
(02:27):
So the later half is more like in shaped in Canada.
So I think I have a mixture of things and I kind of absorbed the start, not the styles,
but the influences from my surroundings too.
So people listening to my music, they might hear some modes and scales from Turkey.
(02:54):
And then they can also just hear some landscapes from Canada.
So it is all there's always a story behind my pieces.
There's always something I'm telling.
And if they know what the main story is, it is more inspiring to listen to my music, I
(03:15):
believe.
I agree with that.
Let's dive a little deeper.
As you mentioned, your compositions beautifully capture the multicultural textures of Istanbul
and Canadian communities.
How do you navigate the blending between these musical traditions?
How do Turkish-Canadian roots reflect in your music as of when?
(03:38):
Yeah, that's a fantastic question really.
Well, on my PhD research, I focused on the different communities in Istanbul and how
their music kind of stayed in their separate communities, but also blended into something
(03:59):
larger that we call Turkish art music over several centuries.
So that was partially my research.
And I realized blending is a natural process.
It organically happens when you are paying attention to different cultural impacts around
(04:19):
you.
So if you are listening, and if you are thinking, if you're analyzing, you naturally start to
integrate different things into your music.
And that started to happen with my music too.
In 2009, I came to Winnipeg, and 2012, I came to Calgary.
So one thing happened, one thing changed.
(04:41):
I'm looking at the compositions I did just before I came to Canada, and a little bit
later I came to Canada.
One thing happened is that my music started to gain more space, because there is more
space.
And it's inevitable that what you live through kind of reflects into your music.
(05:03):
So that's one thing.
And I already materials and modes and that kind of things.
It's very prominent that I carry that from Turkey and that's part of my organic language.
But that started to blend with different, I really don't know how to explain this, but
Canadian colors.
I think there should be some musicologists working on what is a Canadian harmonic language.
(05:30):
There's some to discover there, I believe.
For sure.
In your opinion, what would you consider like Canadian music?
If you could describe Canadian music in, say, three words, what would it be?
Three words?
Oh, well, that's difficult because I think it's a little bit more wider than that.
What about like the first three words that come to mind?
Hey, well, there's one idea that came from Canadian music scene for sure is soundscape.
(05:59):
And that is a Canadian invention of an idea relating the music.
And it kind of coincides with the idea of landscape.
And landscape is very important, part of the Canadian culture, right?
We have the priories, we have the mountains, we have the lakes, we have this, we have that,
the oceans and everything.
(06:20):
So the landscape turned into soundscape in Canadian new music.
And that's one idea.
The other idea is just I feel like, especially where I am in Calgary, I'm not sure if that
will be the same if I lived in Montreal.
It might be different in different parts of the country.
(06:41):
But it is increasingly becoming more free for people to experiment their own language.
So this was a problem.
I think most of 20th century, there was more often like in schools of exploration, and
(07:03):
you kind of need to attach yourself to one or another.
So individuality was becoming more expressed in some understandings.
I think Canadian music is kind of left that behind, let me say it that way.
Individuality becomes more important.
(07:25):
And as I said, as it's reflected in my music, it has more space in the music.
So it allows us to listen to the general trajectory of a piece and explore more colours.
And I find that the nature is somehow seeping into the expressive explorations for many
(07:50):
Canadian composers, I could say.
I love that.
Your compositions have received a claim for expressive qualities and innovative use of
instrumentation as well.
How do you hope your music resonates with Canadian audiences, especially those who may
be discovering Canadian music for the first time?
(08:11):
Very good question.
I realized the audience, if they are especially getting freshly acquainted with the new music,
they need something to hold on to.
They need something that they can listen to, something that makes sense to their musical
(08:32):
past.
Because we all come with a kind of baggage, right?
We have all these Chopin's we play.
Or all the music we explored, we played, we performed, and we learned.
And there is no two people on earth played the same repertoire perfectly the same way
(08:57):
ever.
So we all come with a different background.
We also have our own cultural backgrounds.
Like I might listen to Turkish art music at home, somebody else can listen Nigerian folk
music and the other person can listen to traditional Chinese folk music or something else at home,
(09:17):
right?
Those also shape your understanding of the music when you are listening to something
new.
So I would say it's not only for my music, but for all the new music that people are
listening, they can look for something familiar and hold on to them.
Because those ideas, the memes in the music will come back.
(09:38):
The composers bring ideas back.
It's not like always going to a new thing.
There's always some connection, some cycling back and you know, and I think in my music,
as I mentioned before, the stories and meanings behind the phrases or sound combinations
(09:59):
I use is pretty clear if you are aware of the story or the or if you're aware of the
whatever I'm trying to tell.
There was this piano piece I wrote a few years ago.
It was called Avalanche.
So it starts very high and slow and then it just goes like much faster and bigger towards
(10:19):
the end of the piano.
So it is acting pretty much like an avalanche, right?
Or I wrote a few pieces where I pictured the mountains.
So then if you know that section is mountains, you actually feel the sense it's just going
up or it's just a large orchestral sound to it and so on.
(10:42):
So I think it is important that they look for something to hold onto and just follow
their instinct into music while listening.
I love that.
It's beautiful.
Which pieces of yours would you recommend for an introduction to your music?
Could you tell stories behind them?
Well, there is one I like very much.
(11:05):
It is a smooth piece.
It has again some musical bites from Istanbul and Turkish art music.
And it's called Yakamoz.
It is on my SoundCloud and people can go and listen to it.
And Yakamoz is a creature.
It's like when you touch in dark, like let's say in night, you touch to the surface of
(11:30):
the sea and it becomes very, it lights up.
It's a luminous creature when you poke it, it just becomes lighting on the surface.
And in that piece you can hold on to the shimmers because it just comes in forms of some irregular
(11:51):
tremolos.
So that's one piece.
I think it's a smooth beginning for a new music listener.
There is an old shaman, it's a saxophone.
The Yakamoz is a piano trio, violin, cello and piano.
Old shaman is an alto sax piano duo.
(12:11):
That's also a nice piece that I imagined an old is sitting on top of a flat mountain and
looking at the prairies and trying to kill the world by singing.
So that kind of imagery I find helps.
Anything on my SoundCloud is open to exploration.
(12:31):
Yeah.
Awesome.
How would you describe your composition process?
Does it start off with being inspired by imagery and then you translate it into sound or does
it do these motifs just come to you?
Oh, well, a little bit of all.
I think sometimes I just start with one idea.
Like in Avalanche, it was a project with three pieces.
(12:56):
The pianist Sylvia Shedig-Tyler, she approached me and a painter.
So we had to give each other some previous pieces and I gave Prelude and Fugue and I
received four miniatures and I wrote, I composed the four miniatures based on the four miniature
(13:18):
pictures and the painter just, she composed the painting based on my Prelude and Fugue
and then we decided on a word, Avalanche, and we just went our separate ways and then
we created pieces.
So that was a very interesting project to work with.
Sometimes it starts like that with one word and sometimes it starts with an imagery.
(13:42):
I wrote Woodwind Quintet for Groundswell.
I think it's like eight, nine years ago now.
The Woodwind Quintet by Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, they played that piece and that
was based on five snapshots from my time in Winnipeg.
(14:05):
So the pictures wasn't, they were in my mind, like small pictures, but I composed five small
moments for that.
So it starts either with an imagery, with an idea, or sometimes it just starts as a
music and then connects back to something expressive.
Sometimes it's just a feeling and sometimes it's a poetry, inspires it.
(14:30):
And when I start to compose, sometimes I just draw things instead of writing and I kind
of draw the shape of the piece.
How is the trajectory going to go?
There's going to be some staccato section, there's going to be a big crescendo here
and then I kind of create the form by painting it, then go from there.
(14:56):
Almost like graphic notation.
Almost yes.
And sometimes I create several small musical ideas and work like a puzzle.
Sometimes I just start with one idea and then it just goes, it just flows.
But I think that's a state of, like, that state of writing is really precious because
(15:20):
when you are there, you are not thinking analytically anymore.
You are not specifically trying to put puzzle pieces together.
Just flows through you from your subconscious to your paper, which is a fantastic state
to be in.
Awesome.
As a composer deeply connected to the Canadian music community, what role do you believe
Canadian composers play in preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of the North,
(15:46):
both nationally as a country and internationally?
Well, that's a very good question.
I think looking back like the last two, three hundred years, Canada has a culture, even
though they think, some people think it doesn't, because they're heavily influenced by the
United States.
(16:06):
Canada has a separate culture, and I think it deserves to be promoted and reflected in
a higher artistic exploration.
So Canadian composers are part of this community, a more bigger picture of Canada.
We are part of it.
There's a few hundred of us, probably.
(16:27):
But even though it looks small, we have a power to represent Canada outside of Canada.
And I've seen people exploring their own cultural heritage.
I've seen people exploring the landscapes in forms of landscapes.
(16:50):
I've seen people exploring the indigenous roots that they have.
Or I've seen people exploring the current Canadian events, even like as simple as a
hockey game reflected in the concert hall.
(17:11):
And pretty fun things come out of different operas and like other other things.
And I think we have a role and privilege to have the bigger picture, because you have
to understand the traditional European music and also the variety that we have background-wise,
(17:36):
because we have people from East Europe, from Europe, from West Asia, from Asia, from Africa,
from all around the world, from South America.
And all of this comes and starts to merge into a different culture, which is beautiful.
I think it has a place on the world scene.
(17:57):
And I've seen that becoming more and more happening, like more of my colleagues go abroad
and have their music played and performed and represent Canada.
Yeah, I guess.
Yes.
So going ahead, what do you hope to see for yourself in the future of Canadian music,
both in terms of artistic innovation, but also cultural representation?
(18:22):
How do you see your own artistic trajectory evolving with this broader landscape?
Well, I think I'll be writing lots of music and I plan for staying around at least half
a more century.
So the thing is, as an artist, as you grow up, which you never do actually, but as you
(18:49):
mature somehow with your artistic exploration, your style changes, because style is, I kind
of define as a combination of who you are, where you are, when you are, and what you
do with your art.
And those things, all of them are open to change, right?
Who you are, can change, when you are, definitely change.
(19:13):
Like your artistic exploration changes as well.
I don't know, honestly, where I'm going to change towards, but I'm open to explorations
all the time.
I have a curious character and I keep looking for new things to explore.
I think that will be my trajectory.
(19:34):
Keep exploring different things, getting commissions and creating more.
The innovation part of like for general music, like new music, we are not short in innovation.
I've seen in the last 15 years, devices being innovated to make music.
(19:57):
New devices come forward, new instruments created out of pipes or nothing else.
We have a really innovative mindset as Canadians, I think.
And one thing I like about the Canadian innovative mindset and the creative mindset for that
is that we are not that serious.
(20:20):
We are having fun with the idea.
And I like that very much because it's not competitive as it is in some other places
necessarily, but more explorative.
So I would love to see where people are going with all the projects I have seen starting
the last decade.
(20:41):
I'm curious as much as you are.
Awesome.
And now as a final message, do you have any last thoughts that you would like to share
with the youth that are listening?
Well, if they are into music, they should not give up.
They should always explore new things and old things.
(21:01):
They should realize that old things are, they were the new things and they were the cool
things once.
And it is all like my PhD supervisor, fantastic composer, Allen Bell would say, it is like
one river that we are flowing into and the music is continuous.
(21:27):
We are becoming parts of it.
They should keep an open mind and keep exploring.
Beautiful.
And that's a wrap on today's episode.
So thank you so much again, İlkim, for sharing such incredible pieces of your art and heart.
Until next time, folks, keep listening for the notes of the North.
Hello and welcome to Notes of the North Talks, a series where we get to know our local Canadian
(00:10):
musical talent.
Today, I'm here with İlkim Tongur
Thank you so much İlkim for joining me today.
Thank you for having me, Brianna.
I'm excited for our interview.
So to start things off, where are you joining us from today?
Where in Canada do you call home?
I am in Calgary and I lived here for the last 12 years, so I think it's fair that I call
(00:34):
Calgary home.
Before I lived in Winnipeg for a few years, then I came here, yes.
Beautiful.
Is there any place else that holds a special place in your heart?
Well, Istanbul is.
That's where I grew up.
And it is a very special city in itself.
(00:56):
Once called the Queen of the Cities, right where East and West literally meets, like
half of the cities in Asia, half in Europe.
So very interesting texture of people and pieces.
Beautiful.
What first drew you into composition?
(01:17):
Did it start off right away into composition or did you start off playing an instrument?
Well, I started playing piano and then I started to play oboe.
In Turkey, we had state conservatories that start in grade six for professional musicianship
education.
So it's like a music gifted schools.
(01:38):
So I started there.
I played both piano and oboe.
I first started piano like when I was five.
And when I was finishing high school, I wanted to become a conductor.
And the education for that in that school included composition lessons too.
So it started like that.
And I grew fond of composing more than conducting initially.
(02:03):
And yeah, here I am 30 years later.
Awesome.
How would you describe your style for a first time listener?
I have a mixture of a style because the beginning part of my career started in Turkey.
And then I was in my early 30s when I came to Canada.
(02:27):
So the later half is more like in shaped in Canada.
So I think I have a mixture of things and I kind of absorbed the start, not the styles,
but the influences from my surroundings too.
So people listening to my music, they might hear some modes and scales from Turkey.
(02:54):
And then they can also just hear some landscapes from Canada.
So it is all there's always a story behind my pieces.
There's always something I'm telling.
And if they know what the main story is, it is more inspiring to listen to my music, I
(03:15):
believe.
I agree with that.
Let's dive a little deeper.
As you mentioned, your compositions beautifully capture the multicultural textures of Istanbul
and Canadian communities.
How do you navigate the blending between these musical traditions?
How do Turkish-Canadian roots reflect in your music as of when?
(03:38):
Yeah, that's a fantastic question really.
Well, on my PhD research, I focused on the different communities in Istanbul and how
their music kind of stayed in their separate communities, but also blended into something
(03:59):
larger that we call Turkish art music over several centuries.
So that was partially my research.
And I realized blending is a natural process.
It organically happens when you are paying attention to different cultural impacts around
(04:19):
you.
So if you are listening, and if you are thinking, if you're analyzing, you naturally start to
integrate different things into your music.
And that started to happen with my music too.
In 2009, I came to Winnipeg, and 2012, I came to Calgary.
So one thing happened, one thing changed.
(04:41):
I'm looking at the compositions I did just before I came to Canada, and a little bit
later I came to Canada.
One thing happened is that my music started to gain more space, because there is more
space.
And it's inevitable that what you live through kind of reflects into your music.
(05:03):
So that's one thing.
And I already materials and modes and that kind of things.
It's very prominent that I carry that from Turkey and that's part of my organic language.
But that started to blend with different, I really don't know how to explain this, but
Canadian colors.
I think there should be some musicologists working on what is a Canadian harmonic language.
(05:30):
There's some to discover there, I believe.
For sure.
In your opinion, what would you consider like Canadian music?
If you could describe Canadian music in, say, three words, what would it be?
Three words?
Oh, well, that's difficult because I think it's a little bit more wider than that.
What about like the first three words that come to mind?
Hey, well, there's one idea that came from Canadian music scene for sure is soundscape.
(05:59):
And that is a Canadian invention of an idea relating the music.
And it kind of coincides with the idea of landscape.
And landscape is very important, part of the Canadian culture, right?
We have the priories, we have the mountains, we have the lakes, we have this, we have that,
the oceans and everything.
(06:20):
So the landscape turned into soundscape in Canadian new music.
And that's one idea.
The other idea is just I feel like, especially where I am in Calgary, I'm not sure if that
will be the same if I lived in Montreal.
It might be different in different parts of the country.
(06:41):
But it is increasingly becoming more free for people to experiment their own language.
So this was a problem.
I think most of 20th century, there was more often like in schools of exploration, and
(07:03):
you kind of need to attach yourself to one or another.
So individuality was becoming more expressed in some understandings.
I think Canadian music is kind of left that behind, let me say it that way.
Individuality becomes more important.
(07:25):
And as I said, as it's reflected in my music, it has more space in the music.
So it allows us to listen to the general trajectory of a piece and explore more colours.
And I find that the nature is somehow seeping into the expressive explorations for many
(07:50):
Canadian composers, I could say.
I love that.
Your compositions have received a claim for expressive qualities and innovative use of
instrumentation as well.
How do you hope your music resonates with Canadian audiences, especially those who may
be discovering Canadian music for the first time?
(08:11):
Very good question.
I realized the audience, if they are especially getting freshly acquainted with the new music,
they need something to hold on to.
They need something that they can listen to, something that makes sense to their musical
(08:32):
past.
Because we all come with a kind of baggage, right?
We have all these Chopin's we play.
Or all the music we explored, we played, we performed, and we learned.
And there is no two people on earth played the same repertoire perfectly the same way
(08:57):
ever.
So we all come with a different background.
We also have our own cultural backgrounds.
Like I might listen to Turkish art music at home, somebody else can listen Nigerian folk
music and the other person can listen to traditional Chinese folk music or something else at home,
(09:17):
right?
Those also shape your understanding of the music when you are listening to something
new.
So I would say it's not only for my music, but for all the new music that people are
listening, they can look for something familiar and hold on to them.
Because those ideas, the memes in the music will come back.
(09:38):
The composers bring ideas back.
It's not like always going to a new thing.
There's always some connection, some cycling back and you know, and I think in my music,
as I mentioned before, the stories and meanings behind the phrases or sound combinations
(09:59):
I use is pretty clear if you are aware of the story or the or if you're aware of the
whatever I'm trying to tell.
There was this piano piece I wrote a few years ago.
It was called Avalanche.
So it starts very high and slow and then it just goes like much faster and bigger towards
(10:19):
the end of the piano.
So it is acting pretty much like an avalanche, right?
Or I wrote a few pieces where I pictured the mountains.
So then if you know that section is mountains, you actually feel the sense it's just going
up or it's just a large orchestral sound to it and so on.
(10:42):
So I think it is important that they look for something to hold onto and just follow
their instinct into music while listening.
I love that.
It's beautiful.
Which pieces of yours would you recommend for an introduction to your music?
Could you tell stories behind them?
Well, there is one I like very much.
(11:05):
It is a smooth piece.
It has again some musical bites from Istanbul and Turkish art music.
And it's called Yakamoz.
It is on my SoundCloud and people can go and listen to it.
And Yakamoz is a creature.
It's like when you touch in dark, like let's say in night, you touch to the surface of
(11:30):
the sea and it becomes very, it lights up.
It's a luminous creature when you poke it, it just becomes lighting on the surface.
And in that piece you can hold on to the shimmers because it just comes in forms of some irregular
(11:51):
tremolos.
So that's one piece.
I think it's a smooth beginning for a new music listener.
There is an old shaman, it's a saxophone.
The Yakamoz is a piano trio, violin, cello and piano.
Old shaman is an alto sax piano duo.
(12:11):
That's also a nice piece that I imagined an old is sitting on top of a flat mountain and
looking at the prairies and trying to kill the world by singing.
So that kind of imagery I find helps.
Anything on my SoundCloud is open to exploration.
(12:31):
Yeah.
Awesome.
How would you describe your composition process?
Does it start off with being inspired by imagery and then you translate it into sound or does
it do these motifs just come to you?
Oh, well, a little bit of all.
I think sometimes I just start with one idea.
Like in Avalanche, it was a project with three pieces.
(12:56):
The pianist Sylvia Shedig-Tyler, she approached me and a painter.
So we had to give each other some previous pieces and I gave Prelude and Fugue and I
received four miniatures and I wrote, I composed the four miniatures based on the four miniature
(13:18):
pictures and the painter just, she composed the painting based on my Prelude and Fugue
and then we decided on a word, Avalanche, and we just went our separate ways and then
we created pieces.
So that was a very interesting project to work with.
Sometimes it starts like that with one word and sometimes it starts with an imagery.
(13:42):
I wrote Woodwind Quintet for Groundswell.
I think it's like eight, nine years ago now.
The Woodwind Quintet by Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, they played that piece and that
was based on five snapshots from my time in Winnipeg.
(14:05):
So the pictures wasn't, they were in my mind, like small pictures, but I composed five small
moments for that.
So it starts either with an imagery, with an idea, or sometimes it just starts as a
music and then connects back to something expressive.
Sometimes it's just a feeling and sometimes it's a poetry, inspires it.
(14:30):
And when I start to compose, sometimes I just draw things instead of writing and I kind
of draw the shape of the piece.
How is the trajectory going to go?
There's going to be some staccato section, there's going to be a big crescendo here
and then I kind of create the form by painting it, then go from there.
(14:56):
Almost like graphic notation.
Almost yes.
And sometimes I create several small musical ideas and work like a puzzle.
Sometimes I just start with one idea and then it just goes, it just flows.
But I think that's a state of, like, that state of writing is really precious because
(15:20):
when you are there, you are not thinking analytically anymore.
You are not specifically trying to put puzzle pieces together.
Just flows through you from your subconscious to your paper, which is a fantastic state
to be in.
Awesome.
As a composer deeply connected to the Canadian music community, what role do you believe
Canadian composers play in preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of the North,
(15:46):
both nationally as a country and internationally?
Well, that's a very good question.
I think looking back like the last two, three hundred years, Canada has a culture, even
though they think, some people think it doesn't, because they're heavily influenced by the
United States.
(16:06):
Canada has a separate culture, and I think it deserves to be promoted and reflected in
a higher artistic exploration.
So Canadian composers are part of this community, a more bigger picture of Canada.
We are part of it.
There's a few hundred of us, probably.
(16:27):
But even though it looks small, we have a power to represent Canada outside of Canada.
And I've seen people exploring their own cultural heritage.
I've seen people exploring the landscapes in forms of landscapes.
(16:50):
I've seen people exploring the indigenous roots that they have.
Or I've seen people exploring the current Canadian events, even like as simple as a
hockey game reflected in the concert hall.
(17:11):
And pretty fun things come out of different operas and like other other things.
And I think we have a role and privilege to have the bigger picture, because you have
to understand the traditional European music and also the variety that we have background-wise,
(17:36):
because we have people from East Europe, from Europe, from West Asia, from Asia, from Africa,
from all around the world, from South America.
And all of this comes and starts to merge into a different culture, which is beautiful.
I think it has a place on the world scene.
(17:57):
And I've seen that becoming more and more happening, like more of my colleagues go abroad
and have their music played and performed and represent Canada.
Yeah, I guess.
Yes.
So going ahead, what do you hope to see for yourself in the future of Canadian music,
both in terms of artistic innovation, but also cultural representation?
(18:22):
How do you see your own artistic trajectory evolving with this broader landscape?
Well, I think I'll be writing lots of music and I plan for staying around at least half
a more century.
So the thing is, as an artist, as you grow up, which you never do actually, but as you
(18:49):
mature somehow with your artistic exploration, your style changes, because style is, I kind
of define as a combination of who you are, where you are, when you are, and what you
do with your art.
And those things, all of them are open to change, right?
Who you are, can change, when you are, definitely change.
(19:13):
Like your artistic exploration changes as well.
I don't know, honestly, where I'm going to change towards, but I'm open to explorations
all the time.
I have a curious character and I keep looking for new things to explore.
I think that will be my trajectory.
(19:34):
Keep exploring different things, getting commissions and creating more.
The innovation part of like for general music, like new music, we are not short in innovation.
I've seen in the last 15 years, devices being innovated to make music.
(19:57):
New devices come forward, new instruments created out of pipes or nothing else.
We have a really innovative mindset as Canadians, I think.
And one thing I like about the Canadian innovative mindset and the creative mindset for that
is that we are not that serious.
(20:20):
We are having fun with the idea.
And I like that very much because it's not competitive as it is in some other places
necessarily, but more explorative.
So I would love to see where people are going with all the projects I have seen starting
the last decade.
(20:41):
I'm curious as much as you are.
Awesome.
And now as a final message, do you have any last thoughts that you would like to share
with the youth that are listening?
Well, if they are into music, they should not give up.
They should always explore new things and old things.
(21:01):
They should realize that old things are, they were the new things and they were the cool
things once.
And it is all like my PhD supervisor, fantastic composer, Allen Bell would say, it is like
one river that we are flowing into and the music is continuous.
(21:27):
We are becoming parts of it.
They should keep an open mind and keep exploring.
Beautiful.
And that's a wrap on today's episode.
So thank you so much again, İlkim, for sharing such incredible pieces of your art and heart.
Until next time, folks, keep listening for the notes of the North.
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