Classical tunes echo in southern cotton fields

 The first ÇDSO concert yesterday was given at an elementary school where a large number of the students previously worked as agricultural workers in cotton fields with their families, as part of a project organized by the Public Education Center Directorate's Social Support Center located in the Karataş district of Adana.

That concert was followed by yet another one played right in the middle of a cotton field. An individual working on the project, which is known as "For a cotton-white future," to increase school enrollment rates among children of cotton workers had called upon the orchestra to get involved. 

Adana Governor İlhan Atış and Provincial Education Minister Abdulgafur Büyükfırat gave their full support to ÇDSO involvement, provided largely thanks to the efforts of Social Support Center expert Kazım İkkan Kertmen and ÇDSO Director Salim Özsezer.

ÇDSO musicians Mehmet Edemen (violin), Yusuf Yalçın (violin), Meral Sayın (viola), Boris Tuntev (cello), Proletina Erten (contrabass), Serdar Bakırezen (horn), Özgür Alper (oboe), Doğanay Erten (bassoon) and Nevin Apaydın (flute) arrived in Yemişli Village in Adana's Karataş district yesterday, where they were greeted with great applause at Yemişli Elementary, where most of the students were enrolled largely as a result of the efforts of Kertmen and Remziye Kozan.

Before the concert began, flautist Nevin Apaydın introduced all the instruments to the students, receiving different responses when she asked the students the names of some instruments.

Students showed a great deal of interest particularly in the contrabass and bassoon as they listened to pieces from the artists of classical music.

Following the concert, the artists answered questions from agricultural workers about classical music. ÇDSO coordinator Şükrü Demir also handed out stationery materials to the students at the end of the concert.

Yemişli Elementary School Principal Cengiz Demircioğlu, speaking to the Anatolia news agency, said the students had the chance to be introduced to classical music in an exciting event the likes of which they had never experienced before.

"A concert is a turning point here. When the concert is a classical music concert, the excitement doubles. With a 40-minute concert, the artists taught our students about instruments, their features and renowned composers, things which would take us a year to teach. We offer our thanks to the artists of ÇDSO. We were honored by the fact that they came here by overcoming many difficulties. Perhaps they helped our students to develop new ideas for their futures," said Demircioğlu.