Şiir, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin 100. yıldönümünü anlamlandırmaktan o kadar uzak ki…

Who is Serhan Bali?

Serhan Bali was born in Ankara in 1973 and graduated from Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, Department of International Relations in 1995. Bali, who worked as a manager in the private sector while pursuing a master’s degree at the same school, left his professional career to enter the publishing business with Andante, Turkey’s first classical music magazine, which he founded in October 2002 and is broadcast on the national level and in accordance with modern standards. Bali, who was elected as a jury member of the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2012, presents Andante, together with representatives of other leading classical music publications in ICMA member Europe, selecting the world’s best classical music. He records a CD-DVD every year, he is a member of the jury. Bali was also the editor-in-chief of the Opera and Ballet Newspaper published by the Andante magazine for the Main Administration of the State Opera and Ballet of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism between 2009 and 2014.

Since 2001, Serhan Bali’s articles and research, in which he interprets the agenda of classical music in Turkey and the world, have been published in various newspapers and magazines, primarily in Andante. Bali, who has been among the columnists of the newspaper Radikal since 2005, has been sharing his articles, reviews and interviews with the readers of this newspaper for years. Bali’s book reviews can be found in the book section of Vatan and Radikal newspapers, and his travel articles in Atlas magazine. Bali, who also works as a professional editor in the field of classical music, recently accepted the role of editor of a book by our world-renowned pianist Fazıl Say entitled Loneliness Grief, published by Doğan Kitap. Serhan Bali’s comprehensive music history book, The Great Composers of the Romantic Era, was published by Tempo magazine at the end of 2013.

Bali, who provides consulting services for non-governmental organizations and companies operating in the field of classical music, was a member of the Advisory Board of the Istanbul Music Festival from 2007 to 2009. Serhan Bali, who has been Fest Travel’s music consultant since 2011, has also had the opportunity to visit the world’s leading classical music centers with music lovers by undertaking music consulting on nearly 50 international classical music-themed tours that he has curated since May 2011. Apart from Fest Travel, Bali is still a member of the D-Marin Turgutreis Classical Music Festival and İzmir Karşıyaka Municipality artistic advisory boards.

Bali, who works in the field of organizing concerts-festivals with classical music under the BaliÜnalp brand, as well as the editorial director of Andante magazine, headed the organizing committee of the Donizetti Classical Music Awards, Turkey’s only national award for classical music awarded annually since 2010, Bali, whose mission is to inform the masses about the art of classical music, continues to regularly hold seminars at various addresses for this purpose. Since 2014, he has held more than 30 classical music seminars at Hepsi Öykü, l’Atelier and the Cultural Awareness Foundation operating in Bali, Istanbul.

Serhan Bali, who has been a radio programmer since 2001, has signed thousands of classical music programs for TRT Radio 3, NTV Radio, Radyo Kozmos, Radyo 92.3 and RS FM channels during his programming career at Açık Radyo. Bali still prepares and presents classical music programs on the Borusan Classic radio channel, which is broadcast online 24 hours a day. Since March 2014, Bali has also been producing and presenting the music documentary Journey to the West for the İZ TV channel, which presents the cities and towns where the great composers of classical music lived. Mozart-Salzburg, Beethoven-Bonn, Bach-Leipzig, Handel-Halle, Tchaikovsky-Moscow, Schubert-Schwarzenberg, Chopin-Warsaw are still shown, and new episodes are planned to be added in 2017.