Lighting up mid-conversation, Murat Erginol sat at a coffee shop in the breezy, open-air halls of Atatürk Culture Center, Istanbul’s premier performing arts complex. Erginol, wispily bearded and quick to smile, is, among other accolades, first violinist of the Gedik Philharmonic Orchestra, one of Turkey’s many privately sponsored ensembles. Then rehearsing “The Four Seasons” by Vivaldi, Erginol would perform it for the first time, and as the evening’s soloist, with the orchestra of the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet four days later in the eastern Anatolian city of Van.
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