The award-winning Kurdish soprano Pervin Chakar, who brings the cultural richness of Mesopotamia to the stage, released her second album, “Wind of Kurdistan”, which includes folk melodies of ancient cultures.
Pervin Chakar’s new album “Wind of Kurdistan” which includes folk melodies of ancient cultures, is a valuable archive to be left to the future.
The songs on the album are performed in Kurmanji, Sorani, Zazaki dialects of Kurdish, as well as Armenian and Syriac.
Pervin Chakar, who brings the cultural richness of Mesopotamia to the stage, as well as the music of peoples such as Kurds, Assyrians and Chaldeans who have lived together in this geography for thousands of years, is also interested in church music and Mesopotamian hymns.
A soprano combining opera with Kurdish music
Born in 1981 in Mardin, Pervin Chakar’s music career began in Diyarbakır’s Bismil district. In an interview with Bianet, Chakar says that she used to listen to the radio and cassette player all the time during her childhood: “I used to write down what I listened to in a small notebook and sing at home at the top of my lungs.”
Chakar, who won the regional first prize in an essay competition organised by the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), received a CD of soprano Maria Callas as a gift from the GAP Regional President, which became one of the biggest factors in her decision to become an opera singer. But Chakar could not listen to it because she does not have CD player at that time.
She went to Diyarbakır Anatolian Fine Arts High School with the encouragement of her music teacher. Chakar, who was introduced to classical western music and instruments there, describes the impact of that period on her musical life as follows: “My life changed suddenly here, my real introduction to music started when I enrolled in this high school.”
Chakar, who had the opportunity to listen to the Callas CD, which was given to her as a gift, for the first time at the university, decided to become an opera singer. Then Chakar studied Music Education at Gazi University and had the opportunity to get to know opera closely and improve herself in this sense in Ankara.
Working with her teacher Oylum Erda, an important mezzo-soprano and singing instructor, Chakar’s voice was discovered one day by an Italian opera manager and she received an offer that will open a new chapter in her life. When the manager invited him to Italy, Chakar’s opera adventure took on an international dimension.
With a scholarship from the Italian government, Chakar continued her education at the Academia D’arte Lirica and Academia Musicale Umbria in Italy, where she studied with Carmen Gonzalez, William Matteuzzi, Sergio Bertocchi and Michela Sburlati.
In 2008, Chakar received a diploma from the Perugia F. Morlacchi State Conservatory in Italy with the highest honours and completed her master’s degree at the same conservatory with the highest honours.
In an interview with Evrensel, Chakar stated that her interest in Kurdish music started in Italy, and explained the idea of blending Kurdish music with classical music as follows: “After a while, I guess one goes on a journey of searching and discovering oneself. After a while I began to miss my home and I became more interested in Kurdish culture and literature. Next to the opera stages, I found myself diving in Kurdish music.”
Kaynak: MA, Bianet, Evrensel, Amerikanın Sesi, Kurdistan24