Incantesimi: Marta Celli and Özgür Yalçın in Concert at Villa Vezzano
On October 22, 2023, Marta Celli's Celtic harp and Özgür Yalçın's Iranian santur met again for "Incantesimi," a concert near Brisighella tracing Celtic and Anatolian musical threads.
“Incantesimi” — Enchantments — began nine years before this concert, when Celtic harp met Iranian santur for the first time. On October 22, 2023, that meeting continued near Brisighella, with Marta Celli and Özgür Yalçın performing together, followed by a jam session.
Özgür Yalçın has been composer, guitarist, and singer of the Istanbul group Karagüneş since 1997, arranging traditional songs gathered over years of ethnomusicological research across rural Anatolia and Kurdistan, sung in Zazaki, Kurdish, Turkish, and Laz, and released across six albums, one on the respected Turkish label Kalan Music. Marta Celli, born in Forlì, has pursued music and painting since childhood; her duo Alarc’h has performed at major folk and Celtic festivals, and she has released five albums as both duo and soloist.
“Incantesimi” travels through the Celtic regions — Scotland, Ireland, Britain, Galicia — before arriving in Anatolia, through ancient Kurdish and Turkish ballads and original compositions by Özgür.
Nine people came, with over a hundred more following online.