The program for the 43rd Istanbul Classical Music Festival, which will take place between May 31 and June 29, was announced on Tuesday. The festival's director, Yeşim Gürer Oymak, said the event would also host two world and three Turkish premieres."The festival will host close to 600 local and international artists, including Yuri Bashmet, Boris Berezovsky, Emmanuelle Haim, Angela Hewitt and Yuja Wang, as well as some of the world's leading ensembles," she said in a press conference in Istanbul. Emphasizing this year's theme of "Cultural Landscapes," Oymak said the festival will include 27 concerts, consisting of symphony and chamber orchestras, vocal concerts and recitals.The festival will also once again be held in different venues, she added. In addition to the Heybeliada Hagia Triada Monastery, performing for the first time at the festival, some of the other festival venues include the Hagia Irene Museum, St. Antoine Church, Süreyya Opera House, Austrian Cultural Office, İş Sanat Concert Hall and Lütfi Kırdar Conference and Exhibition Center. Also speaking at the press meeting, Canan Ercan Çelik, secretary-general of the Borusan Kocabıyık Foundation, which has sponsored the festival since 2006, said the festival's theme will remind the audience once again of the necessity of embracing the sensitivity and tolerance that are essential to a multicultural community."Investing in music promotion in our country in order for it to be appreciated by a wider community and using music to facilitate building bridges between us and different cultures are among our primary missions, as part of our endeavor to support culture and the arts," she said.The festival also continues to support young musicians. In effect, a young flute soloist, to be determined by a jury following nationwide auditions, will gain the opportunity to give a concert with the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. Presented by its leading sponsor, the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), the 43rd Istanbul Music Festival is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Istanbul Governorship and the Istanbul Municipality. The festival's opening ceremony will take place at the Lütfi Kırdar Conference and Exhibition Center on May 31, and tickets will be on sale beginning Feb. 14 through Biletix retail outlets, the Biletix call center and the Biletix website: www.biletix.com.