We played music that I would never have played back home-- I don’t know anything about Turkish music, and I wouldn’t want to try to make a piece “sound Turkish” at the risk of creating a stereotype. (It would be like trying to make something “look American” by putting on a cowboy hat!) But when we played this concert, I realized that it can also be really good to play music from a different culture - as long as you do it respectfully and learn about the culture, too. One of the recorder players and our lute player are both from what used to be the Ottoman Empire, and they were inviting us students - from Mexico, and Switzerland, Iraq, and the United States - to play that music with them. And to bring everything full circle, Ali Ufki was born in Poland and then lived in Turkey; and he wrote down the traditional Turkish songs in the style of church music from Geneva.
It was a great concert, and I was so happy to learn about music that was completely new to me!
It makes me realize that although it is important to be aware of the sexism and racism that exists in all human societies, this awareness doesn't have to stop you from enjoying spending time with people who may not share the same perspective as you but who can even teach you new ways of seeing the world.
