Melih Fereli was born in Istanbul in 1948, into an immigrant family from Macedonia. After completing his secondary education at the Istanbul High School for Boys (IEL) and the Waynesboro Area High School in Pennsylvania (1966),  he  attended Robert College, Istanbul (BSc. 1970) and Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA-USA (MSc. 1971).

A devotee of art in general, Fereli has focused his attention on classical music and contemporary visual arts.  During the period 1979 – 1995 he was a singing member (tenor) of the world-renowned Philharmonia Chorus, London, while also serving on its Board. Fereli served as General Director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV) from 1993 to 2001, having created a strong team organising the Istanbul Festivals (film, theatre, music, jazz) and the Istanbul Biennial.

Fereli is one of the co-executive producers (along with Sir John Tooley and Peter Maniura of BBC) of “Mozart in Turkey”, a 90-minute film on Mozart’s opera “Die Entführung aus dem Serail”, which was awarded the Golden Rembrandt at the International Widescreen Festival in Holland.

At an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 22 October 1998, Fereli was awarded the O.B.E. by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II for his services to British-Turkish cultural relations. In November 2000, Melih Fereli attended “The White House Conference on Culture and Diplomacy” at the invitation of President Clinton, representing Turkey.

Fereli served as a member of UNESCO’s Mediterranean Council for Culture, as an Advisory Board Member of the Mersin Festival and the Open Society-TR, as Chairman of Proje4L. Fereli is a faculty member and a trustee of ITU-MIAM (Centre for Advanced Studies in Music), TEGV (Turkish Educational Volunteers Foundation) and KBGV (Cultural Awareness Foundation), as well as serving on the boards of the American Turkish Friendship Council, Borusan Arts and Culture (parent organization of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra). Fereli is the arts and culture advisor of the Vehbi Koç Foundation and a member of the executive board of “ARTER-Space for Art”.

In addition to his native Turkish, Fereli speaks English and German fluently, French moderately. Fereli has dual nationality (Turkish & British) and has one son, Altay (1987).

You can read Melih Fereli's Keynote here!

Martin Greve is specialist in musicology and ethnomusicology with a focus on Turkish music. Dr. Greve also has a background in Chinese studies. His doctoral thesis deals with the history of Turkish Art Music in the 20^th century. His habilitation thesis is a

study of Turkish music in Germany. Dr. Greve has taught various courses on ethnomusicology and Turkish music as well as offered cross-cultural training at several universities and music academies in Germany and Switzerland, including TU Berlin, FU Berlin, Universität Basel, Musikhochschule Köln, and Universität Heidelberg. He has written several booklets on Turkish and Korean life in Berlin on behalf of the Berlin municipal Integration Office (Berliner Integrationsbeauftragter).

From 2004 to 2011 Dr. Greve was coordinator to the study program of Turkish music at the Rotterdam World Music Academy (part of the Codarts - Hogeschool voor de Kunsten). From 2007 to 2011 he served as advisor to the Berliner Philharmonie concert hall for the concert program “Alla Turca.” He was the artistic director for the interreligious concert program, "Night Prayer," for the European Cultural Capital Essen in 2010.

He also contributed to the EMC publication "Music in Motion - Diversity and Dialogue in Europe" with an article on Music in the European-Turkish Diaspora.

Beginning in May, 2011, Martin Greve is a research fellow at the Orient-Institut Istanbul.

You can find Martin Greve's Keynote here!