Beautiful, graceful, peaceful – the Whirling Dervishes of the Sufi Mevlevi Order from Konya, Turkey join the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra onstage.

The lights dim and the mystic ceremony begins. The sounds of the Ottoman instruments, rare, pure and ravishing, the choral sounds of the Brandenburg Choir chanting the poems of Jalaluddin Rumi, the exotic mystic poet whose combination of richness and bold adaptations of music poetry form the key to his popularity today.

This unique concert experience spurs from a meeting of minds between Serhat Sarpel, Hakan Talu and Paul Dyer in Istanbul, where together they devised a program following the path of an ancient 16th century Ottoman manuscript by Albert Bobowski (Ali Ufki).