Tribute to Dimitrie Cantemir

The award-winning En Chordais ensemble appear with guest virtuosi from around the Mediterranean in a program dedicated to the music of Constantinople in the late 17th and early 18th centuries—a repertoire that has left its mark on musical developments in the Greek East to this day. This was the era in which Ottoman musicians began to turn away from Persian art music and creatively engage with the Byzantine tradition instead. The period is dominated by the multifaceted and multitalented figure of Prince Dimitrie Cantemir, a leading composer, music theorist, historian, geographer and theologian who played a seminal role in the musical and academic life of the Ottoman capital and beyond.