YPHIL – International Philharmonic Orchestra presents the first of Seven Epic Concerts Play For Peace Concert Featuring the World Premiere of Faruk Kanca’s Ornament Overture And the American Premiere of Nimrod Borenstein’s Concerto for Violoncello and String Orchestra, Op. 56B At Peter Norton Symphony Space September 10, 2015 at 7pm

New York, NY (August 18, 2015) – YPHIL – International Philharmonic Orchestra kicks off Seven Epic Concerts with the Play for Peace Concert at Peter Norton Symphony Space on September 10, 2015 at 7pm. The program for this very first concert of YPHIL’s will include the World Premiere of Faruk Kanca’s Ornament Overture, orchestra participant Yigit Karatas performing Édouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole, Op. 21, and famous cellist Gjilberta Luca soloing in the American Première of Nimrod Borenstein’s Concerto for Violoncello and String Orchestra, Op. 56B. The evening will be conducted by Peter Breiner and will include blended Western and Eastern music traditions, adding ethnic instruments to symphony orchestra. Unique traditional instruments from Tunisia, South Africa, Korea, Turkey, Columbia, Nicaragua, and many more, will be heard along with violins, drums and piano. For tickets and more information visit: www.symphonyspace.org/event/8987/Music/ypo-young-soloists-concert.

Violin prodigy Yigit Karatas (soloist) was born in Mersin, Turkey in 1994. At the age of 11 he began his music studies at Mersin State Conservatory and gained the attention of many prominent musicians and professors. By the age of 12 he became a part of Symphony Orchestra, and by the age of 14 he passed the entrance examinations for the Istanbul University State Conservatory beginning his high school studies with Veniamin Varshavsky. That same year, he was awarded with the First Prize of the 4th National Gulden Turali Violin Competition, participated in the Keshet Eilon Violin Festival in Israel with famous soloists, and was invited to the Eilat Festival in Israel. Karatas studied with well-known soloists such as  İvry Gitlis, Maxim Vengerov Cihat Askin, Shlomo Mintz, Hagai Shaham, Chloë Hanslip, Haim Taub, Albert Markov, and Itzhak Rashkovsky. He participated in masterclasses with Ida Haendel, Leonid Kavakos Rudolf Koelman, and Vadim Gluzman. He studied with Professor Muriel Cantoreggi at Freiburg Hochschule. He performed with the children’s orchestra CAKA (Cihat Askın and his Little Friends) at Mersin Culture Center, Bilkent Concert Center in Ankara, Bursa Cultural Center and the Presidential Concert Hall as a soloist. Yigit, at 17 years old, performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Burak Tuzun in 2011. In the same year, he played Mendelssohn’s E Minor Violin Concerto three times at the International Belfort Music Festival. In 2011, he took part at the New Virtuosi Violin Mastercourse in Duino, Italy. From this mastercourse, he proceeded to give concerts in Croatia and Slovenia. He has traveled to represent his country and give concerts with “One young world” in Johannesbourg, Africa. He was awarded 2nd prize at International Marsyas violin competition. At the age of 19, Yigit performed as a concertmaster of the World Peace Orchestra at Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center where acclaimed Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey presented the concert. He has received a full scholarship and is continuing his education at Manhattan school of Music under the supervision of Albert Markov.

Gjilberta Lucaj (Soloist), a native of Albania, began cello studies at the age of six. At age thirteen she won the ‘National Young Artist Competition’. As a result, she was the youngest student ever to be chosen to tour in Italy with the Shkoder Symphony Orchestra. The highlights of the tour included playing for Pope John Paul II and receiving a full scholarship from the Padova Conservatorio di Musica. Under a full scholarship, Gjilberta went on to attend the Music Conservatory at SUNY Purchase College, Mannes College of Music and Juilliard. Most recently, Gjilberta received a Masters in Music Education from the Steinhardt School of Education at NYU. She has been featured in all major Albanian Newspapers; AlbaniaNews.com, Shekulli.com, Illyria.com, Korrieri.com, GazetaShqiptare.com. Gjilberta has given exclusive performances/interviews for: KBS-America, Time Warner Cable; NDTV.Com, Albania Culture TV, KEFTV.com and FashionTV.com. She has toured extensively in Mexico, China, South Korea, Europe and most recently she was invited by the Afghanistan Ministry of Education in collaboration with the American Embassy to perform and teach at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul, Afghanistan. Gjilberta has performed frequently at the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center. She has been featured in the Daily Newspaper, TimeOut NY, Couture Fashion Magazine. Gjilberta pioneered the soloist performances in the USA Couture Fashion Shows in NYC, Tri-State area, PA, Boston and Miami. She has recorded and performed for Sony, Avatar Studios, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, Ricky Martin. Most recently, Gjilberta was chosen as a member of an All-Star orchestra with members from of New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and Metropolitan Opera to partake in the first major Classical and Popular Festival in Barbados. In 2014, she was chosen to perform for Vice President Joe Biden in a private fundraising event. She is currently composing the score for two full length feature films and enjoys performing worldwide and teaching in NYC.

Peter Breiner (Conductor), known as a conductor, pianist, arranger and composer, has conducted, often doubling as a pianist, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, the Hungarian State Radio Orchestra, the Nicolaus Esterhazy Orchestra Budapest, the Polish Radio and TV Symphony Orchestra, the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Capella Istropolitana, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra National de Lille, France, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, to mention just a few. He is one of the world’s most recorded musicians, with over 200 CDs released and record numbers sold ( 1.5 million reached by 2008 alone ) both as albums or online streams. Some of his most acclaimed recordings include Beatles Go Baroque (over quarter of million CDs sold worldwide) and Elvis Goes Baroque representing the collections of his commercially most successful Baroque arrangements together with Christmas Goes Baroque I and II. His arrangements of national anthems of ALL participating countries were used during the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and illegally in Beijing in 2008. He recorded his own arrangements of the anthems of the participating countries of the Rugby World Cup 2011 and a new 10 CD set of the National Anthems of the World 2013 Edition was written to coincide with the 2012 Olympic Games in London and was released in July 2013 by Naxos. More recently Peter recorded his own arrangements of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Songs and Dances of Death and The Nursery, and Tchaikovsky’s Operatic Suites from The Voyevoda and The Queen of Spades for Naxos. These recordings, with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Peter, are the subject of a new movie documentary entitled Bask also released in October 2012. In addition, September 2012 saw the much-anticipated release of Peter’s own orchestral arrangements of Debussy’s 24 Preludes also for the Naxos label and to much worldwide critical acclaim. These arrangements have already been chosen for ballet choreography and live concert performances worldwide. The world premiere recording for Naxos of his own arrangements of Janacek’s Six Operatic Suites with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and himself conducting earned similar acclaim, Gramophone stating ” Splendid disc …. conducted with passion and sympathetic understanding .. ” the Chicago Tribune adding ” Breiner fills the void with beautifully crafted symphonic suites based on the music of Jenufa”. All of these albums achieved places on worldwide Top Seller and Best Recording lists. His trio, Triango’s latest album was released in the fall of 2011 by First Music. Slovak Dances, Nasty and Nice, a Transmedia project, premiered live in July of 2013 with interactive videos, audio recording, and audience involvement platforms. This project is based on Peter’s own 85 minute orchestral suite of dances which will be recorded and performed live in 2015. Slovak Dances, Nasty and Nice pulls together all the latest trends in technology and communication across the world today. Peter’s compositions and arrangements have been played in concerts worldwide. Films that include his musical scores have enjoyed very wide international exposure (such as Anne of Green Gables, Timothy Findley’s Piano Man’s Daughter, produced by Whoopi Goldberg, and The Magic Flute ), and his music has been featured many times on the most popular TV shows (including CBC television show Wind at My Back and Seasons of Love). It is difficult to assign a title to this artist – is he the conductor who composes or is he the pianist who arranges? As he simply states, “I am a musician”. In this age of high specialization, it is not easy to find someone who, with the same ease, takes the podium for a popular light classics concert, play / directs from the piano, conducts a symphonic orchestra in Barber or Janacek or in a program of his own arrangements, a chamber orchestra with baroque programme while playing harpsichord or a group of almost 200 musicians recording a score for Universal Studios’ movie. Peter is the curator of “Sounds of Serendipity” – a series of Contemporary Classical Music Concerts featuring new and emerging composers and performers with a unique connection to both Peter and Czech music culture. This annual series is presented at the Bohemian National Hall, New York. Peter began to study piano in his early childhood (1961) and his exceptional artistry led to his early acceptance at the Conservatory in Kosice (1971). He studied piano (L. Kojanova), composition (J. Podprocky), conducting and percussion. From 1975-1981 he studied composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (former Czechoslovakia) with Prof. Alexander Moyzes, one of the most significant figures in modern Slovak music. Formerly residing in Canada from 1992 until 2007, Peter Breiner now lives in New York.

The six other concerts include:

Herald Square – Dedicated to the memory of the victims and heroes of 9/11

September 16, 2015 at 3pm: Hear My Nations’ Voice Concert in Times Square

Tickets: nyuskirball.org/page/tickets.

September 20, 2015 at 3pm: Concert For Nations’ Friendship at Bowling Green Park, Wall Street

September 25, 2015 at 7pm: Community Fellowship Program at the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue

Featuring: Jose Luis Gomez, Conductor; Alexander Markov, Violin

YPHIL – International Philharmonic Orchestra aims to show the world how representatives of different countries can work together regardless of their nationality, race and beliefs; bringing out the magnificent music, celebrating the collaboration of cultures. This dynamic performance will exemplify how collaborating with people from all over the world can bring a better tomorrow. YPHIL – International Philharmonic Orchestra envisions including more than 100 young musicians from more than 70 different countries for its first year. Young musicians between the ages of 18 to 26 will come from a wide range of cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious backgrounds to take part in this ensemble. Creating this festival of peace and fraternity will empower the voices of our youth, promote peace and dialogue, and raise awareness for universal youth issues. Through new and traditional social media, YPHIL – International Philharmonic Orchestra will reach out to millions of people to convey its powerful musical message.

Serhat Kaan, Founder; Lynn Mutlu, MD

Composer: Sevki Faruk Kanca; Conductor: José Luis Gomez; Violinist: Alexander Markov; Drumset Artist: Sean J. Kennedy; Fashion Designer: Diana Broussard; Composer: Vlad DeBriansky; Musician: Gjilberta Lucaj

Serhat Kaan (founder and chair, YPHIL) is the director of TURKEN Foundation and was born in 1989 in Istanbul. After obtaining Industrial Engineering degree with honors, he moved to New York City in 2010 to continue his studies for both masters and PHD degrees on full scholarship from the Ministry of National Education of Turkey. He has been actively engaged in philanthropy since 2006, the year he began to serve as the president of the Industrial Engineering Club at Fatih University. His hard work to elevate the prestige of Industrial Engineering Club was recognized by both his college and civil society leaders. Mr. Kaan enjoys a rare combination of technical expertise and political insight. Mr. Kaan’s prior service to the New York City Industries for the Blind proves his commitment in the field of human rights. His leadership role at the WPO Orchestra proves his contributions and involvement in raising awareness for global youth issues. Mr. Kaan currently holds M.S. Degree in Industrial Engineering and M.A. Degree in International Relations & Politics both from New York University; and is seeking a J.D. Degree in New York City.

For more information, visit www.yphil.org.