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Tarik Bulut is granted his longtime wish to conduct a children's concert in his homeland.
By MARY ANN KOSLASKY
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 23, 2001
INVERNESS -- In Turkish, bulut means cloud. And Tarik Bulut has been floating on one since April.
The 81-year-old Inverness resident will fulfill a dream he has held for 50 years when he returns to Ankara, Turkey, in December to conduct a children's concert with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara.
As a young man in Ankara, Bulut studied violin at the Music Teachers School. But with the inception of the State Conservatory of Music in 1941, Bulut, then 21, made a switch to the tympani.
"I was the only student of a German instructor," Bulut recalled. "In two years he killed me with German discipline. What should have taken four years, I learned in two."
It worked. When the instructor returned to Germany to join the German war effort, Bulut was made a member of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra.
It was a busy time for the young musician. Already his need to share his love of music with children was emerging. Besides performing with the symphony, he became a volunteer music teacher in local schools and a radio personality known as Tarik Abi, or "Big Brother" Tarik.
In this persona he co-hosted the weekly Children's Hour with a woman known to the children as Ayshe Abla, or Big Sister Ayshe. As musical director of the show he introduced children to a variety of music, sometimes leading a children's choir. The show ran for six years, offering a variety of entertainment ranging from plays to poets, and featuring music and guest performers.
During World War II, he served for 21/2 years in the Turkish Air Force, where he organized a division band.
In 1947, the Turkish government offered Bulut the opportunity to travel abroad for two years to study music. His love of American movies and New Orleans jazz led him to choose the prestigious Juilliard School in New York.
In his little pocket diary, in which he chronicled his journey, he wrote, "Tarik, you're going finally." Little did he know what changes lay ahead.
While studying at Juilliard, Bulut met two people who would alter his life forever: his future wife, Frances, and American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein.
Frances was a secretary at Juilliard and a young widow with a small son, Kenneth. Bulut had met the boy, but not his mother. A friend told him, "If you see his mother, you're going to be his daddy."
Frances lived with her family above her father's barbershop. Bulut worked in the record shop next door. He worked late one night to size her up when she returned home. He liked what he saw, asked her out ... and she said no. After several rebuffs, Bulut made a recording of a song he had written just for her. He played it for her. She said "yes," and, later, "I do."
"I saw she would be a good wife," Bulut said. "And I was right."
Later the couple had two sons, Errol and Kenan, who joined Kenneth to complete the family. Bulut says Errol nowadays is a "starving musician" playing guitar in Manhattan. Kenan is a letter carrier in Wantagh, N.Y., on Long Island, and has twin 3-month-olds, a boy and girl. Kenneth, who has moved around a lot over the years, is on disability leave after an accident.
When Bulut received a one-year scholarship to Tanglewood Berkshire Music Center in Massachusetts, he enrolled in a class on conducting taught by Bernstein. Questioned by the maestro why a musician would want to conduct, Bulut shared with him a long-held dream to conduct concerts for children. Bernstein understood.
In the United States, Bulut built a musical career and reputation for himself that only enhanced his standing in the Turkish community. For 15 years he traveled 36 states representing the Turkish government's Tourism and Information Office. He was on the radio and television and visited American schools, colleges, universities, Rotary and Kiwanis clubs and anywhere he could share the message of his country's culture and social life.
He also worked as a disc jockey for Voice of America for four years and had his own orchestra, which ranged from small combos to as many as 16 members.
The Buluts moved to Citrus County in 1984. The couple came to Inverness because Frances' brother lived here. They also came because of health reasons and for the warmer climate.
Fast forward to 2001. Frances, Bulut's wife of 48 years, died March 1. In late April Bulut traveled to visit with friends in Ankara, where he attended a children's concert and was asked to address the youthful audience.
Then came the surprise. Board members of the symphony orchestra, who knew of Bulut's long-held dream, invited him to return in December -- to conduct the children's holiday concert.
"For half a century I have had this dream," Bulut said. "And now it will come true.
"But I told them I would only come if I could do it my way. They told me I would start a revolution (in music)."
The board agreed and Bulut began his work in earnest.
That first night, "I went to bed at 11:15," he said. "At 11:30 I got up and started writing notes."
He hasn't stopped since he returned. The program will feature portions of Moussorgsky's Night On Bald Mountain complete with a black-clad phantom menacing the audience and a cock's crow to announce morning's arrival. A xylophone simulates the sound of rattling bones in Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre while a group of skeletons dances around the stage, becoming enthralled by the soulful violin.
Ravel's Bolero, the William Tell Overture, some classical dance pieces such as Strauss' Tales from the Vienna Woods, and Brahms' Hungarian Dances No. 5 will be joined by some Turkish folk dance music and other pieces including two of Bulut's own compositions, The Lazy Fisherman and A Chinese Story.
Other surprises, including some Marx Brothers-style high jinks, are planned. Some will come from Bulut himself, such as the mechanical cock's crow and playing his keyboard while inviting the orchestra to join in.
With the agitation of a 5-year-old on Christmas morning, Bulut demonstrates the vibrant gestures of his conducting technique while carrying on a running commentary about the music pouring from his stereo. He shares books and photos of his beloved Turkey and of himself as a young musician, and even offers a visitor a piece of Turkish delight candy.
Ask Bulut if he is excited, and you're liable to get this reply:
"I'm in glory land!"