Students from schools that are AMIS members as of November 1, 2008 pay "member" fees. Students from schools other than those that are AMIS members as of November 1, 2009 pay "non-member" fees.
Teachers from AMIS member schools (as of November 1) pay "member" rates. Teachers who are individual members of AMIS also pay "member" rates. All others pay "non-member" rates.
Note: Only students from AMIS member schools are eligible to apply for financial aid.
Bilkent Laboratory and International School (BLIS)
East Campus
Bilkent
Ankara 06800, Turkey
Telephone: +90312 2664961
Fax: +90312 2664963
Host Organizer: Andrew Dittgen
andrew@blis.bilkent.edu.tr
Our festival hotel is the BIlkent Hotel and Conference Center, which is a part of the Bilkent University system.
Bilkent Hotel & Conference Center
Bilkent 1.Cad. 06800 Bilkent / Ankara
Tel: +90 (312) 266 46 86
Fax: +90 (312) 266 46 79
Sales Office Fax: +90 (312) 266 68 13
Banquet Office Fax: +90 (312) 266 14 63
info@bilkentotel.com.tr
www.bilkentotel.com.tr
All students will be housed in double and triple rooms. The cost per person per night is Euros 55 which includes breakfast and taxes.
Teachers and official chaperones requiring a single room will pay Euros 95 per night, including breakfast and taxes.
The hotel must be prepaid along with the other festival fees on or before December 15th. - posted 22 October, 2009
Hotel for Families Attending the Concert:
We have been advised to suggest the Gordion Hotel where they will give a
festival rate of 155TL (approxiamately 75 Euros_ for a single and
190 TL (approximately 90 Euros) for a double. Parents should contact the Gordion Hotel directly and be sure to
mention they are making a reservation for Bilkent University (not AMIS, or BLIS).
That is what they have on file for the special rate.
Ankara Gordion Hotel
Büklüm Sokak no : 59 – 06660 Kavaklidere- ANKARA
Tel : +90 ( 312 ) 427 80 80 – Fax: +90 (312 ) 427 8085
E-mail :info@gordionhotel.com
Website: www.gordionhotel.com
Travel Information
Shuttle buses will leave the Bilkent Hotel at 7 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday to go into Ankara. Groups of students must be accompanied by their teacher or chaperone.
The shuttle buses will leave downtown Ankara at 10:00 p.m. to return to the hotel in time for the 11 p.m. curfew.
Teachers must sign up for the shuttle by noon each day. A couple of teachers have pre-booked for Wednesday's shuttle as they will arrive after 12 noon on that day. - posted 15 March, 2010
An 'EMERGENCY LINE' has been established for the Middle and East Campus of Bilkent University (our festival is taking place on both campuses) in order to deal with emergency health or security problems, which may occur at any time of the day and require assistance. This single emergency line eliminates the need to be anxious about who or what number to call when there is any kind of emergency.
Depending on the emergency (health of security), the caller will be forward to the related center or department and, if necessary, an ambulance will be called.
The people who work on this line speak English as a foreign language. Both of these numbers (290-4000 OR 290-6666) can be reached either on or off campus. On a Bilkent University phone, you can also simply the last four digits.
Please keep these emergency numbers handy: 290 6666 OR 290 4000 - posted 12 March, 2010; updated 13 March, 2010
A few of you had mentioned that some of the parents of HBC participants were quite concerned about Ankara being close to the earthquake reported in Turkey earlier today. - posted 12March, 2010
The following is a note from Andrew Dittgen, our host organizer in Ankara, who has lived in Ankara for the past 10 years. Feel free to pass the information on to any students or parents coming to the festival. Andrew also attached a seismic map of Turkey (below) that illustrates what he says in his message.
There are four major earthquake/seismic hazard zones in Turkey, with I being the most volatile and IV the most benign. The city of Ankara is within zone IV and thus in one of the safest places to be in Turkey (please see attachment). In fact, in the early days of the republic (1920's), this was also taken into account when determining the location of Turkey's capital city.
The epicenter of the earthquake that occurred early this morning was actually located some 400 miles east of Ankara (not near Ankara as some reports claimed). Absolutely nothing was felt in the city of Ankara itself.
More to the point, in my ten years of living in Ankara, despite many instances of seismic activity around the country, never has there been the least tremor in this area. Again, I feel it is one of the safest places in the country.
- posted 8 March, 2010
Adults from the BLIS Parents' Council will meet flights for participants coming to the HBC in Ankara, holding signs to identify themselves. They will then guide groups to buses for the trip to the hotel for check-in and registration. It is therefore imperative that we know now of any flight information which has changed since schools submitted their travel information! - posted 7 March, 2010
Some schools are arriving early enough on Wednesday (or even on Tuesday) and are wishing to take a tour of Ankara with their students.
The travel agent that is suggested for this is Baypars Alpaslan. He works for the main travel agent who works with our host school. He can be reached at baybarsalpaslan@startoursturkey.com
- posted 1 March, 2010
- BLIS is providing shuttles from the airport to the hotel. A member of the parent community and/or students from the school will be holding a sign with your school designation on it. They will take you to the appropriate bus for transfer to the hotel.
- You will have an opportunity to sign up for a shuttle bus into town on Wednesday and on Thursday for travel after rehearsal. There will be a small fee for this shuttle bus and you must sign up for it by noon each day if you wish to take your students downtown. On Wednesday and Thursday evening, schools will be free to explore and to eat dinner on their own. However, the following can be kept in mind:
- BLIS will be able to provide shuttles into the city
- Directors will need to accompany students when doing so.
- Schools can also easily get to the local Mall (called Ankuva) just down the hill. Easily accessible by local transit (free and we'll provide
details), taxi (4USD one way), or even by foot (20 minute walk). The Mall has lots of restaurants, shops and also a great Entertainment Center (with Bowling Alley). Tentatively on the Thursday night, the BLIS student committee is planning to arrange an outing to the Entertainment Center. - On Friday evening, we have a double event planned. Students will be kept busy at the hotel, with a combo of dinner and dance
(with a number of surprises thrown in!) in the big reception hall of the hotel. This should begin at 7:30pm.
Directors will begin their evening with the students but then head off to the Director's Dinner (at the nearby Bilkent Fish House) at 8pm. Fish is the specialty for this dinner but there are also meat or vegetarian options available. Directors should be back at the hotel around 10:30 in time for curfew. There will be BLIS chaperones at the student event. If any director or chaperone wishes to stay for the full student event rather than the directors' dinner, he or she should let Georgia know by Friday March 12th. - If you have people from your school who plan to come to the concert you should pre-book tickets with Lee Baker before Friday of this week: lee.baker@amis-online.org Note; Directors and chaperones on the master list of participants do not need to order tickets. We already have them put aside.
All participants in the Honor Band and Choir Festival should register at the AMIS desk in the Bilkent Hotel between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 17th.
- posted 8 March, 2010
Fees for HBC Festival Ankara
You can view all the fees, quoted in both Euros and Sterling, for all AMIS events by clicking on the link on this updated fees page. To make it easier to see the fees specifically for this festival, they are listed below.
Schools must choose to be invoiced in either Euros or Sterling. It will for the first time be possible to pay fees by cheque, transfer or by school credit card. Please contact Georgia Bassett at AMIS headquarters for details of credit card payment. You must be billed in sterling in order to use this facility.
One Archive concert CD for your school €35 £32.00
Band Music fee(per student) €10 £ 9.00
Choral Music fee (per student and choral teacher) €22 £20.00The fees listed below are per person.
AMIS Members:
Director/Chaperone Registration €175 £160
Student Registration €125 £115Non-Members:
Director/Chaperone Registration €220 £200
Student Registration €170 £155
Alternates will pay registration fees only if they are called to become a regular participant. - posted 17 November, 2009
NOTE: REGISTRATION FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE. If a cancellation is necessary, hotel fees will be refunded where possible, if AMIS is not charged for that room, or if an alternate is able to take the hotel place for the original registrant. - updated and revised 9 November, 2008
All schools will need to register officially for this festival at the Bilkent Hotel on Wednesday, March 17 between the hours of 15:00 (3 p.m.) and 21:00 (9 p.m.) . At that time you will need to pay any outstanding bills, pick up important adult information and schedules and lanyards for yourself and your students.
Please make note of the following contact information. If for any reason one of your students is unable to come, please contact both Andrew and Georgia. It may still be possible for an alternate to come if we know as soon as you do! Georgia will be at the Bilkent Hotel from Sunday night, March 14.
On Friday evening, we have a double event planned Students will be kept busy at the hotel, with a combo of dinner and dance
(with a number of surprises thrown in!) in the big reception hall of the hotel. This should begin at 7:30pm.
Directors will begin their evening with the students but then head off to the Director's Dinner (at the nearby Bilkent Fish House) at 8:00pm. Fish is the specialty for this dinner but there are also meat or vegetarian options available. Directors should be back at the hotel around 10:30 in time for curfew. There will be BLIS chaperones at the student event.
Participating schools need to verify as soon as possible what the Visa requirements are for their own participants coming to Turkey.
Be sure to visit the following web site soon for clear information regarding visas:
www.e-konsolosluk.net The website can be viewed in English and seems to quite user-friendly as far as finding specific inf
A number of nationalities, but not all, can obtain visas at the point of entry. If you are going through Istanbul, you should plan for enough time to purchase visas there and make your connections.
Some nationalities do not require any visa for tourist visits.
In most cases, if visas need to applied for beforehand, a Letter of Invitation will be needed. Schools can send their requests for such a letter directly to Andrew Dittgen, the host organizer- andrew@blis.bilkent.edu.tr The request needs to include the following:
- Name
- Birthdate
- Nationality
- Passport Number
- Adult who is traveling with the student
- Exact dates of Turkish entry and exit.
Note: Andrew will probably send the Letters out as PDFs. If the letter needs to faxed directly to an embassy (or elsewhere), a fax number needs to be included with the information you send to Andrew.
Here are the audition codes for the 2009-2010 school year. Use this new number to clearly mark all auditions being submitted for festivals during the 2009-2010 school year. Do NOT use the initials for your school on the audition discs, CDs, or cassettes.
If you do not find your school’s name on this list, email the Executive Consultant so a number can be assigned to your school. - posted 30 July, 2008
Important Reminder for all preparing auditions:
Students are each to announce " I am violin number 1" (or the appropriate instrument and audition number) at the beginning of their audition. They must never announce their school or their name. The number they say is the order in which their audition appears on the CD. It must also match the online form that was submitted. This helps us to be sure we are hearing the auditionee we think we are hearing. The second student on the CD would say "I am violin number 2" and so on. Remember, all violins go on one disc, all sopranos go on one disc, all basses go on one disc....
BE SURE TO READ ALL INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE AUDITION CD BEFORE YOU START TO RECORD WITH YOUR STUDENTS! - -posted 21 July, 2008
Participating directors are asked to send ticket requests for the families of their students to Lee Baker no later than March 12, 2010.
The Honor Band and Choir Festival Gala Concert will start at 19:00 (7 p.m.)
The official name for our Festival concert hall is the: Bilkent Konser Salonu (in Turkish)
(Bilkent Symphony Hall)
06800 Bilkent - Ankara
The building in which the Concert Hall is located is the:
Bilkent Üniversitesi Müzik ve Sahne Sanatları Fakültesi
(Bilkent Üniversity Music and Performing Arts Faculty)
If someone were coming from the city, taxi drivers will certainly know how to get to the main entrance of Bilkent University. However, most drivers will probably not know where the Concert Hall or Concert Hall building is located. So in this case, they should do the following:
1) Ask OR show Taxi Driver:
'Bilkent Üniversitesi, lütfen' [Bilkent University please]
2) Once at the main gate, they should have the driver ask OR show the person at the security booth:
'Müzik Fakültesi, lütfen.' [Music Faculty, please]
-posted 27 February, 2010, updated 1 March, 2010
Women's Choir
Michael Bojesen: Eternity (SSASSASA)
Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen: Konstateringer (SA divisi)
Bob Chilcott: Friends (SSA)
Sherwin, arr. Neaum: A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square (SSAA)
Albert Alcaraz: Sancta Maria, succurre miseres (SSAA)
Brahms: Vier Gesänge, Op. 17 (SSA)
2. Lied von Shakespeare
3. Der Gartner
Kodaly: Turot eszil a cigany (SSA)
Mixed Choir
Rosephanye Powell: Sorida (SSATTBB)
Alessandro Scarlatti: Exultate Deo (SATB)
Folksong from Banyuwangi (Indonesia): Luk Luk Lumbu
Eric William Barnum/Edna St. Vincent Millay: Afternoon on a Hill (SATB)
Peter Louis van Dijk: Horizons: (SATTBB)
Keith Hampton: True Light (SATB)
Band
Paul Myer Hopkins: Anatolian Sketches
(World Premiere - Commissioned by AMIS for this festival)
Copland/Patterson: Down a Country Lane
Hanson: Chorale and Alleluia
Pierre LaPlante: In the Forest of the King
Ticheli: Amazing Grace
Sousa/Fennell: Washington Post
The Finale for both choirs and band
Turgut Pögün: Life
(World Premiere - Commissioned by AMIS for this festival)
