By Heidi Trautmann

What makes life so interesting is to have different outlooks once in a while which might change your views. That is my reason to climb hills, to go around things and to meet extraordinary people. There was this Saturday, a summer evening in June when we were invited to come to Karaman to the very top of it, to one of the oldest houses with a terrific view onto the old village with its church, onto Hillarion and the coast far beyond Kyrenia. We were shown historical images of Karaman in the 70s, when there was but a handful of people living there, of Nadia Brunton the passionate woman watching over the village and the church which she had made her life-work. I had come to her one year before she died, to question her about the church, about the icons as religious art. When she gave up to do the job single handed the Karaman Church Committee was established which still works today as a sort of care taker with five committee members having Anne Hughes as treasurer and Vic Lundie as chairman.

This Church Committee has organized a benefit concert in favour of the very talented young violinist Nihat Agdac and it was to this concert our hosts were taking us after having been tuned in by them with the governing view onto the village.

The Karaman church, open on Sundays from 10.30 to 12.30, is one of the few orthodox churches in the Northern part of the island so well cared for, regularly repaired and whitewashed. It is thanks to Evkav and the Antiquity Department and the deeply caring village inhabitants and their church committee, something they can really be proud of.

In this atmosphere, serene but homely, about one hundred guests sat facing the iconostasis, a wooden scaffold with Virgin Mary in the centre, surrounded by the martyrs and holy men of the bible. All icons are in the best of conditions.

In the presence of this kind of audience Nihat Agdac accompanied by the pianist Agata Jozwik, presented us an evening with Mozart: Sonata for violin and piano; Bela Bartok: Rumanian Dances; Manuel de Fella: Spanish Dance, and finally Beethoven with the Spring Sonata for violin and piano in F Major.

We had been informed that Nihat Agdac will begin his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2010, a great honour and the result of years of hard work. Nihat was born in 1986 in Famagusta and learnt to play the piano at the age of six and the violin at the age of 11. In 2000 he was accepted at the Hacettepe University State Conservatory in Ankara where he graduated from in 2007 with three prizes including the faculty and university high honours. He had been invited to join many famous orchestras worldwide and had solo performances. Now, that he will begin his studies in London, the donations from this benefit concert was meant to support his stay in London.  According to the treasurer an amount of Sterling Pounds 800 could be collected.

It is a good and important gesture towards young talents, because it is the best investment we can make for the future of our mankind.