Gallery
About
Istanbul International Music Festival 2027 is the main event of the year with the participation of world classical music stars.
If you are interested in this schedule leave a request. As soon as the playbill is announced, we will let you know immediately, and you will be the first to get the tickets.
In each section, you will get the best seats for the same price - centrally located and in front rows.
We provide seats with the best acoustics only.
Even in the world's best concert halls and opera houses, the listening conditions can vary greatly, and some seats are better than others. Sometimes nearby seats have very different viewing and listening conditions.
Usually, these seats are sold out soon and available for early bookers only. We guarantee that you will receive full-view seats only.
Detailed information about the 2026 Festival will be added later.
From 11 to 25 June 2026, Istanbul welcomed the 54th edition of the Istanbul Music Festival, one of Türkiye’s leading classical music events. Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the festival took place under the theme Here & Now, reflecting on the fleeting nature of live music and the unique experience of each performance. Its programme featured 22 concerts and more than 80 artists and ensembles, bringing together internationally acclaimed orchestras, distinguished soloists and innovative performers at venues across the city.
Among the major highlights were appearances by the Wiener Symphoniker, celebrating its 125th anniversary, and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, alongside leading Turkish ensembles such as the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra. The opening concert featured the Tekfen Philharmonic under conductor Aziz Shokhakimov, with pianist Behzod Abduraimov performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
The festival welcomed an impressive roster of international soloists, including pianists Bruce Liu, Behzod Abduraimov, Lucas and Arthur Jussen, and cellist Kian Soltani. The Wiener Symphoniker appeared with Bruce Liu under chief conductor Petr Popelka on 23 June, followed by a concert with Kian Soltani on 24 June. Other distinguished guests included tenor Ian Bostridge, countertenor Iestyn Davies and Portuguese singer Sara Correia. Legendary pianist Maria João Pires received the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award, while Turkish composer Turgay Erdener was presented with its Honorary Award.
The programme extended beyond traditional orchestral and chamber concerts. Italian dance company CCN/Aterballetto presented a triple bill featuring choreography by Angelin Preljocaj, Crystal Pite, and Iratxe Ansa and Igor Bacovich. Special projects included a musical journey through the historic Grand Bazaar, performances in churches and gardens, and a concert celebrating the film music of Ennio Morricone with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra.
The festival also championed contemporary creation, presenting three world premieres, alongside free outdoor concerts and initiatives supporting young musicians. Performances took place in prestigious concert halls and distinctive locations throughout Istanbul, including the Atatürk Cultural Centre, Süreyya Opera House, the Grand Bazaar and historic gardens.
The Istanbul Music Festival 2026 brought together classical tradition, contemporary creativity and the cultural richness of Istanbul, turning the city into a vibrant meeting place for music lovers from around the world.
About the Istanbul International Music Festival
The Istanbul Music Festival is considered as the most prestigious and established classical music event in Turkey. Throughout its history of more than 50 years, it has played a major role in building up an appreciation for classical music in Istanbul and Turkey. Acclaimed nationally and internationally with its creative programmes and innovative structure, the festival strives to create opportunities for artists to share their inspiration and artistic experience with one another and contribute to the enrichment of the national and international classical music repertoire.
Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, the first Istanbul Music Festival, the flagship of the Istanbul Festivals, took place between 15 June and 15 July 1973, originally under the title “Istanbul Festival”. In its earlier years it has included in its programmes the finest examples of artistic creativity in diverse fields. In time, İKSV started to organise separate festivals and biennials in different fields, and during this process, the festival was renamed “Istanbul Music Festival” in 1994. Since 1973, the Istanbul Festivals and Biennials are proud to have become a joint platform for the local and the universal, for past and present, and for the role they have played in reinforcing such values as respect for cultural diversity and freedom of expression in order to enrich dialogue between societies and cultures regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or belief.
In its 50 years the Istanbul Music Festival hosted the most prestigious orchestras and ensembles such as Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Filarmonica della Scala, Philharmonia Orchestra, Kirov Opera and Ballet with such renowned conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, Mariss Jansons, Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Yuri Temirkanov, Valery Gergiev, Gustavo Dudamel, William Christie, to name a few.
A distinguished line-up of international soloists such as Elizabeth Scwarzkopf, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle, Cecilia Bartoli, Montserrat Caballé, Renée Fleming, Itzhak Perlman, Anne Sophie Mutter, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Fazıl Say, Yehudi Menuhin, Mischa Maisky, Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Aldo Cicciolini, Daniel Barenboim, Radu Lupu, Lang Lang, Juan Diego Florez, Andre Previn, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Shlomo Mintz, Suna Kan, Ayla Erduran, İdil Biret and Hüseyin Sermet were among the guests of the Istanbul Music Festival.
Outstanding dance companies such as the Martha Graham Dance Company, Bolshoi Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Bejart Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theatre as well as Les Ballets de Montecarlo were presented to music lovers in previous years.
With its Lifetime Achievement Awards, Istanbul Music Festival also provides recognition to composers, judicious researchers, leading conductors, innovatory and creative artists, people who made significant contributions to our cultural heritage and whose projects reveal the unifying power of music. Among the recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award are Leyla Gencer, John Tavener, Arvo Pärt, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Gidon Kremer, Krzysztof Penderecki, and José Antonio Abreu.
Istanbul Music Festival also aims to enrich the contemporary music repertoire by regularly commissioning new works both to internationally established composers as well as to young and upcoming ones since 2011. Since then, the festival has been the platform for world premieres of Arvo Pärt, Giya Kancheli, Peteris Vasks, Alexander Raskatov, Fazıl Say, and Tigran Mansurian’s new works.
Being the oldest of the Istanbul Festivals, which became landmarks of cultural life in Turkey, the Istanbul Music Festival has also earned a reputation for its major role in encouraging research in musicology and in launching special projects on shared cultural values through its productions.
The Istanbul Music Festival was organised in its early years under the artistic direction of Aydın Gün, who was the General Director of İKSV at the time. Cevza Aktüze, who had been among the managers of the festival since the beginning, became the festival’s first director in 1991 and held the position until the end of 1999. Ahmet Erenli served as the director of the Istanbul Music Festival from 2000 to 2006, followed by Yeşim Gürer Oymak from 2006 to 2018. Efruz Çakırkaya has been the festival’s director since August 2018.
