concertos by Naxos Records. Through events such as the Bilkent Concert Series, Turkish Composers Week, Education Concerts and The Bilkent International Anatolia Music Festival, the orchestra aims to bring a wide range of activities to large audiences, to spread the appreciation of music at national level, undertake international activities and develop cooperation with institutions abroad. Along these objectives the orchestra has toured to Italy (1998), Germany (Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival 2000,2011), Belgium (2001), Portugal (2000) Switzerland (2002-2004 Montreux Festival) and to Tokyo (2004) Among the artists the orchestra has performed with are Valery Afanassiev, Pierre Amoyal, Alison Balsom, İdil Biret, Han-na Chang, Robert Cohen, Jean-Philippe Collard, José Cura, Nikolai Demidenko, Emre Elivar, Denyce Graves, Janine Jansen, Sumi Jo, Suna Kan, Olga Kern, Albert Dohmen, Lang Lang, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Mischa Maisky, Shlomo Mintz, Christiane Oelze, Gülsin Onay, Güher-Süher Pekinel, Mikhail Pletnev, Viktoria Postnikova, Vadim Repin, Olivier Charlier, György Sándor, Fazıl Say, Hüseyin Sermet, Sayaka Shoji, Maurice Steger, Akiko Suwanai, Alexander Ghindin, Nicola Benedetti, Sabine Meyer, Boris Berezovsky, Simona Houda-Šaturová, Emmanuel Pahud, Sharon Isbin Turkish State Polyphonic, Rome Philharmonic, Bulgarian State Radio and Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choirs. The BSO has performed under guest conductors such as, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gürer Aykal, Serge Baudo, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Aleksandr Dmitriyev, Jean Fournet, Howard Griffiths, Peter Gülke, Ernest Martinez Izquierdo, Yoel Levi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Nello Santi, José Serebrier, Lior Shambadal, Maurice Steger, Vlodymir Sirenko, Karl Anton Rickenbacher and Emil Tabakov Directorship and venues Continuing its 2010–11 concert season under the artistic direction of Işın Metin with music director Klaus Weise, the orchestra and its ensembles welcome audiences at the Bilkent Concert Hall (640) and Bilkent ODEON (4000) in Ankara, Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory High School concert hall (300) in Erzurum and Bilkent Erbil College concert hall (750) in Erbil, Iraq. External links BSO official website Bilkent University video archive Hürriyet Newspaper NTV Kahramankaptan References Musical groups established in 1993 Turkish symphony orchestras Culture in Ankara Symphony orchestras Bilkent University 1993 establishments in Turkey University orchestras