Lerzan Tuncer and Alexander Radziewski Meet with a Marimba and Percussion Concert in Izmir

Marimba and percussionist Lerzan Tuncer will share the stage in Izmir with Alexander Radziewski, one of the important representatives of the German orchestral tradition, who has been the solo timpanist of Symphoniker Hamburg since 1987.

The concert, which will be held within the scope of the Art and Music Festival for Health, will be held on Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 19.00. In the program where marimba and vibraphone are at the center, contemporary repertoire will come together with different musical traditions from Anatolia to Iran, from Brazil to Europe.

Behind this meeting is not a newly established acquaintance, but a professional communication spanning years. The paths of Lerzan Tuncer and Alexander Radziewski crossed in 2010. The two artists' long-standing desire to make music together is brought to the stage with this concert to be held in Izmir, years later. Radziewski's participation in the project by coming with his own means makes the concert a special place not only musically but also in terms of solidarity between the artists.

Alexander Radziewski's musical background comes from Germany's strong orchestral tradition. The artist, who was a member of the Bundesjugendorchester and Junge Deutsche Philharmonie between 1976 and 1987, was a Robert-Stern-Institut Berlin scholar between 1977 and 1981. During this period, he studied with Oswald Vogler, who was the solo timpanist of the Berliner Philharmoniker during the Herbert von Karajan years.

Radziewski, who continued his education in Vogler's class at Hochschule der Künste Berlin, later continued his studies at Musikhochschule Lübeck. He has been the solo timpanist of Symphoniker Hamburg since 1987. The artist, who has performed with his orchestra in many important concert halls, especially the Elbphilharmonie, also carries out training and mastery studies in the fields of timpani, vibraphone and marimba in different countries.

Lerzan Tuncer, on the other hand, has been working on marimba for a long time, treating it not only as a percussion instrument, but also as a solo instrument that opens up to different cultures and contemporary music.

Tuncer performed at Tonhalle Zürich as part of the Zürich Festival; He represented Turkey as a soloist with composer and saxophonist Daniel Schnyder and the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra. In 2024, she performed "Prism Rhapsody" by Keiko Abe, one of the pioneers of the contemporary marimba repertoire, with the Antalya State Symphony Orchestra. In the same year, he gave a solo marimba recital at CSO Ada Ankara.

An important part of the artist's work for years is the marimba becoming more visible as a solo concert instrument in Turkey. With his collaborations with musicians from different countries, Tuncer contributes to the performance of new repertoires in Turkey, and to the transfer of interpretations from Turkey to the international arena.

The program of the concert in Izmir also bears the traces of this approach.

In addition to the works of Nebojša Jovan Živković and Emmanuel Séjourné, two of the leading composers of the contemporary percussion repertoire, "Khodahafez" from Iranian music, "Água e Vinho" from the Brazilian repertoire and "At Morning Dawn" from the Anatolian music tradition will be performed.

“In the Dawn of the Morning”, Assoc. Dr. While it will be included in the program with the arrangement of Onur Nurcan, Alexander Radziewski will contribute to the interpretation and arrangement process of the work prepared for this concert.

Thus, not only two percussionists, but also the musical memories of different geographies will come together in a concert program. The sound world of marimba and vibraphone will sometimes open up to contemporary European music, sometimes to Iran, Brazil, and sometimes to familiar melodies of Anatolia.

One of the meanings of the concert, which will be held as the 103rd anniversary of the Republic approaches, emerges here: not to compare Turkey's cultural heritage with other musical traditions, but to bring them closer together on the same stage.