The Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra is a Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 symphony orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

 based in Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

.

Founded in 1945 as the Istanbul Municipality City Orchestra, its first principal conductor was Cemal Reşit Rey

Cemal Resit Rey

Cemal Reşit Rey was a Turkish composer, pianist, script writer and conductor.He was born on October 25, 1904 in Jerusalem, and died on October 7, 1985 in Istanbul....

. In 1972 it became the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. Its current principal conductor is Erol Erdinc.

Conductors

Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari

Anatole Fistoulari was a noted 20th century conductor.Anatole Fistoulari was born in Kiev Ukraine into a musical family...

, Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

, Rolf Agop

Rolf Agop

Rolf Agop was a German conductor and academic.-Professional career:After his studies of music in Munich Agop worked first for the Bayerische Landesbühne, a touring theatre, and then for three years as Kapellmeister and choir director at the Kärntner Grenzland-Theater in Klagenfurt...

, Mircea Basarab

Mircea Basarab

Mircea Basarab is a fictional character in The Cassandra Palmer series written by Karen Chance. He was a prince in Romania before he was cursed to be a vampire around 500 years ago. He had two brothers, Radu and Vlad. Mircea and his father were killed by nobles from Wallachia. His father was...

, Ionescu Galati, Tadeusz Strugala, Alexander Schwinck, Vladimir Fedoseev

Vladimir Fedoseev

Vladimir Fedoseev is a Russian chess grandmaster .In 2010, he tied for 2nd–7th with Alexey Dreev, Ivan Sokolov, Dmitry Andreikin, Alexander Areshchenko and Konstantin Sakaev in the Chigorin Memorial...

, Erich Bergel

Erich Bergel

Erich Bergel was a conductor from Transylvania .-Professional career:Bergel was a flutist of the Hermannstädter Philharmoniker age 18. From 1950 to 1955 he studied conducting, organ and composition at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy of Cluj-Napoca...

, Jean Perrisson, Cemal Reşit Rey

Cemal Resit Rey

Cemal Reşit Rey was a Turkish composer, pianist, script writer and conductor.He was born on October 25, 1904 in Jerusalem, and died on October 7, 1985 in Istanbul....

, Hikmet Şimşek, Gürer Aykal

Gürer Aykal

Gürer Aykal is a Turkish conductor and Adjunct Professor at Bilkent University. He has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999.-Education:...

, Rengin Gökmen, Demirhan Altuğ

Soloists

Igor Oistrakh

Igor Oistrakh

Igor Oistrakh is a Russian violinist.He was born in Odessa, Ukraine and is the son of violinist David Oistrakh. He attended the Central Music School in Moscow and made his concert debut in 1948. From 1949 to 1955 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory, winning first prizes and international...

, André Navarra

André Navarra

André-Nicolas Navarra was a French cellist and cello teacher.-Early life:...

, Leonid Kogan, Vaclav Hudecek

Václav Hudecek

Václav Hudeček is a Czech violinist.He studied at the Prague Conservatory. While he was still only fifteen, he performed in concert on 12 November 1967 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. One day later he was heard by the legendary David Oistrach. Hudeček was the pupil of this great...

, Tedd Joselson, Heinrich Schiff

Heinrich Schiff

Heinrich Schiff is an Austrian cellist and conductor. He studied cello with Tobias Kühne and André Navarra and made his solo debut in Vienna and London in 1971...

, Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

, Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti

right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...

, Jean-Pierre Rampal

Jean-Pierre Rampal

Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...

, Sabine Meyer

Sabine Meyer

Sabine Meyer is a German classical clarinetist.-Biography:Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist...

, Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer

Gidon Kremer is a Latvian violinist and conductor. In 1980 he left the USSR and settled in Germany.-Biography:Kremer was born in Riga to parents of German-Jewish and Latvian-Swedish origins. He began playing the violin at the age of four, receiving instruction from his father and his grandfather,...

, James Tocco

James Tocco

James Tocco is an American concert pianist. He is the youngest of thirteen children born to Vincenzo and Rose Tocco, both Sicilian immigrants.-Early life:...

, Lazar Berman

Lazar Berman

Lazar Naumovich Berman was a Soviet Russian classical pianist. As a technician, Berman was extraordinary in terms of sheer evenness, control, and rhythmic panache, yet he always channeled his considerable craft toward musical ends....

, Maurice Steger

Maurice Steger

Maurice Steger, born 1971 in Switzerland, is a musical director and as a recorder player one of the most influential and popular soloists of his generation....

, Natalia Gutman

Natalia Gutman

Natalia Gutman is a Russian cellist. She began to study cello at the Moscow Music School with R. Sapozhnikov. She was later admitted to the Moscow Conservatory, where she was taught by Rostropovich, amongst others....

, İdil Biret

Idil Biret

İdil Biret is a Turkish concert pianist, renowned for her interpretations of the Romantic repertoire.-Education:...

, Suna Kan

Suna Kan

Suna Kan, born on October 21, 1936 in Adana, Turkey. Great Turkish violinist.She started playing the violin at the age of five and gave her first public concerts when she was only nine years old, performing Mozart's A major and Viotti's A minor violin concertos with the Presidential Symphony...

, Ayşegül Sarıca, Ayla Erduran, Verda Ermen, Leyla Gencer

Leyla Gencer

Leyla Gencer, or Ayşe Leyla Çeyrekgil was a world-renowned Turkish operatic soprano.Known as "La Diva Turca" and "La Regina" in the opera world, Gencer was a notable bel canto soprano who spent most of her career in Italy, from the early 1950s through the mid-1980s, and had a repertoire...

, Suzanna Mildonian, Kostas Kotsiolis, Narciso Yepes

Narciso Yepes

Narciso Yepes was a Spanish guitarist.-Biography:Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, Region of Murcia. His father gave him his first guitar when he was four years old. He took his first lessons from Jesus Guevara, in Lorca...

, Ratimir Martinović

Ratimir Martinovic

Ratimir Martinović is an award-winning Montenegrin pianist.-Biography:Martinović was born in Kotor, Montenegro, then Yugoslavia, where he completed the elementary music school; he continued his education in Novi Sad at the Isidor Bajić Music school and at the Academy of Art in the class of the...