2025-26 Season > The X-tet: Sounds from Turkey & The Ottoman Empire
Join Boston Baroque for an intimate concert with the X-tet.
Boston Baroque’s premier period chamber ensemble presents a program that bridges past and present, featuring the world premiere of a new commission by Turkish-American composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol.
The X-tet will be joined by members of Sanlıkol’s acclaimed ensemble DÜNYA for a performance that weaves together new music, Ottoman-era works, and period instruments. The result is an exploration of cross-cultural dialogue and shared musical heritage spanning centuries.
Estimated Run Time
1.5 HRS | No Intermission
Location
The Multicultural Arts Center | 41 Second St, East Cambridge, MA 02141
ARTISTS
violin
Christina Day Martinson
Learn More >
composer, oud, ney, voice
Mehmet Ali Sanlikol
Learn More >
violin
Jesse Irons
Learn More >
PROGRAM
To Be Announced.
COMPOSER
Mehmet Ali Sanlikol (b. 1974)
Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol is a Grammy-nominated Turkish-American composer, performer, and scholar based in Boston. He serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, where he directs the Intercultural Institute, and his work spans jazz, classical, and Turkish musical traditions. His compositions integrate the modal (makam) and rhythmic (usul) systems of Ottoman and Turkish music with contemporary Western forms, resulting in a uniquely expressive sound. The Boston Globe has described his music as “colorful, fanciful, full of rhythmic life, and full of feeling... the multiculturalism is not touristy, but rather sophisticated, informed, internalized.” Sanlıkol performs internationally on instruments including the oud and ney, and his creative output extends to digital instrument design and orchestral commissions.
