Klasik Keyifler Müzik DerneÄŸi - FevzipaÅŸa Mahallesi, Çay Kenarı Sokak, No: 151, Merkez Çanakkale - music@klasikkeyifler.org +90 532 614 4955
Schumann's World
1-11-2026 Sunday, 4pm
@ StudioMahal
FevzipaÅŸa Mah. Çay Kenarı Sok. No 151, Merkez, Çanakkale
A Bach-Schumann Concert
Program
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Partita for violin solo: BWV 1003 (1720) Johann S. Bach
(piano arrangement by R.Schumann 1853)
Romance No. 1 (1853) Clara Schumann
Nachtstücke for solo piano (1839) Robert Schumann
Sonata for violin and piano no1 in Amin (1851) Robert Schumann
Ellen Jewett
violin
Başarcan Kıvrak
piano
Schumann’s World, Program Notes
Violinist and co-founder of Klasik Keyifler, Ellen Jewett will join Izmir-based pianist Başarcan Kıvrak for a program centered around the creative lives of Robert and Clara Schumann.
Bach was a constant guide and provided inspiration for the Schumanns throughout their lives and Robert wrote that “Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is my grammar, and is certainly the best. I have taken the fugues one by one, and dissected them down to their minutest parts. The advantage of this is great, and seems to have a strengthening moral effect upon one’s whole system”. The Schumann marriage diary shows that they began studying Bach together in the very early days after their wedding and continued this devotion throughout their lives. This addition of piano accompaniments to Bach’s original solo violin works, which Robert called “Bachiana” is one of his last musical achievements before his attempted suicide and final years in a mental institution.
In addition to being one of the great performing pianists of her time in a profession dominated by men, Clara also improvised and composed a number of pieces for piano and chamber music. Her Romances were written for Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim, who along with Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn and Brahms, made up a close group of the Schumann’s friends and collaborators. Sadly, Clara stopped composing after Robert’s death, and this is one of her last compositions although she continued performing on stage for a total of 61 years.
The 4 pieces for solo piano, Nachtstücke are a reference to short stories under the same title by E. T. A. Hoffmann, and they share dark themes of madness and trauma. These were written during a turbulent period when Robert learned of his brother’s terminal illness and Clara’s father was refusing to allow them to marry (they would be married a year later). These were Robert’s original descriptions of the pieces, (although he removed these titles before publishing): Funeral Procession, Strange Company, Nocturnal Revels and Roundelay with Solo Voices. The final piece on this program, his first sonata for violin and piano embodies all the sweeping romanticism beloved by his admirers.
This program is sponsored by the Klasik Keyifler Music Association. Chamber Music Exchange and Studio Mahal.
The performers will be available for questions and discussion after the concert.
Ellen Jewett
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Violinist, Ellen Jewett has performed around the world and throughout the US in major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and the Kennedy Center. For 11 years
Ellen Jewett was a member of the prize-winning Audubon Quartet. Hailed by the New York Times for their “strikingly
beautiful, luminescent sound” the string quartet performed in the US and abroad, and coordinated an intensive string quartet seminar every summer at the Chautauqua Institute in NY.
Other chamber music collaborations include performances with Yo Yo Ma, Maxim Vengerov, Colin Carr, John O'Conor, James Campbell, Eli Eban, RuÅŸen Gunes, Johannes Moser and Idil Biret. An avid performer of contemporary music, she has performed many premiers and worked closely with such composers as Phillip Glass, Sir Michael Tippett, Leon Kirchner, Kamran Ince, and has performed with contemporary music ensembles such as Continuum, Sequitur and Ensemble X.
She received her BM at Indiana University and MM at the State University of New York, Stony Brook where her major teachers were Joyce Robbins, James Buswell and Josef Gingold.
Ellen Jewett has performed as guest concertmaster of the Borusan Philharmonic, Istanbul State Orchestra and the Bilkent Orchestra, and is the founder and artistic director of Klasik Keyifler, an NGO that presents chamber music concerts in unusual venues throughout Turkey.
She has served on the faculties of McGill University, SUNY Stony Brook, Ithaca College, and Ankara University. Jewett has recorded for Centaur, Chandos and recently released a CD of Turkish solo music on Naxos.
Başarcan Kıvrak
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Başar Can Kıvrak is praised for his compelling interpretations and profound musical storytelling, blending the legacy of the Soviet Piano School with a distinctive artistic voice rooted in personal resilience.
A leading Turkish pianist of his generation, Kıvrak continues to shape the contemporary piano scene through a vibrant combination of solo, chamber, and orchestral performances. In 2024, he released his latest album, Director’s Cut, dedicated to Robert Schumann’s solo piano works under the Ada Müzik label. The recording centers on Schumann’s Sonata No. 3, presented in its rarely performed first version that originally included five movements. The album also showcases works such as the Fantasiestücke, Op. 111, and Nachtstücke, Op. 23 — poetic and introspective pieces that are performed less frequently in recital programs.
Over the past decade, Kıvrak has performed as a soloist with all state orchestras in Turkey and with leading ensembles such as the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. His passion for chamber music has led to collaborations with renowned ensembles including the Borusan Quartet and the Semplice Quartet. He has appeared at leading festivals such as the Ankara, GümüÅŸlük, Antalya, Ä°zmir, and Nicosia International Music Festivals, as well as the Ä°zmir International Days of New Music.
Known for his ambitious and artistically meaningful programming, Kıvrak was the first pianist in Turkey to present the complete Beethoven piano trios within a single concert season. He also took part in a landmark Rachmaninoff project alongside two other pianists, performing all four piano concertos, the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, the complete works for two pianos, and a selection of significant solo pieces to mark the composer’s 150th anniversary. In addition, he gave the Turkish premiere of Max Bruch’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra..
His talent has been recognized with prestigious awards such as third place in the 2002 International Ferdi Statzer Piano Competition, the 2004 Yamaha Scholarship, and the Grand Prix at the 2005 Sofia Young Virtuosos Piano Competition.
Although Kıvrak first encountered the piano at the age of ten, his path to the instrument was anything but traditional.
After resuming studies with Emre Åžen, he entered Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts Preparatory School, continuing under Namık Sultanov and later earning his bachelor’s degree under Gülnara Aziz. In 2008, he was admitted to the prestigious Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, where he studied with Eliso Virsaladze — one of the foremost representatives of the Soviet Piano School — and graduated with a Red Diploma in 2012.
Today, alongside his concert career, BaÅŸar Can Kıvrak shares his knowledge and artistic vision as a faculty member at YaÅŸar University’s Faculty of Arts and Design, Department of Music — passing on the same spirit of resilience and freedom that shaped his own path.