Hacettepe University acts as a bridge in establishing international cultural partnerships through its work. Within this framework, our university's Ankara State Conservatory has been included in the cultural arm of the PNRR-National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is being implemented by the Italian government within the European Union, and has launched a collaboration project with Italy's long-established Conservatory of Music G.B. Martini. This plan enables Turkey to participate as a partner for the first time in the "Exchange and Cooperation Project between Bologna and Ankara-PNRR -Erasmus Project entitled ‘A Focus on the Historical Musical Relations Between Italy and Turkey". The collaboration aims to highlight the ancient cultural commonalities between Eastern and Western cultures and to build the future on this unity by exploring the ‘shared cultural roots between Turkey and Italy.’
The first phase was hosted by Hacettepe
The first period of the project, shaped by Prof. Luisa Baldassari and Prof. Dr. Cenk Güray, took place in Ankara. The first phase, realised through the strong collaboration of Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory faculty members and students, was attended by four faculty members and nine undergraduate music students from Bologna. The first phase featured presentations, workshops, and concerts by teachers and students from both established conservatories, exploring the musical collaboration between Turkey and Italy from ancient times to the present day within a historical context.
An important foundation has been laid for the continuity of cooperation
In the initial phase, our conservatory's teaching staff and students gained significant knowledge and experience regarding different periods of Italy's ancient classical music tradition, while researchers from Italy also acquired a rich array of knowledge about our country's and Anatolia's extensive musical traditions. Ankara State Conservatory Lecturer Jan Nigges and artists Hüseyin Geçer, Mikail Geçer and Prof. Dr. Erol Parlak also contributed to the meeting, enabling the cultural horizons of the partnership to broaden further. The meeting, which enabled musicians from both countries to mingle and deepen their cultural understanding, provided an important foundation for the continuity of the collaboration that was created.
The visit to Bologna will take place in April
As part of the meeting, a closing concert was held with the participation of students and teaching staff from the two long-established conservatories. The closing concert was seen as promising in terms of the musical products of this collaboration already beginning to take shape. The next phase of the project will continue with Hacettepe University State Conservatory's visit to Bologna. The visit will take place in April 2026. It was stated that musical plans and programmes for our conservatory's students and academics' visit to Bologna in April are already being prepared.
