Today, both are lecturers at Global Musics. Lilian teaches Brazilian vocals at Caribbean and South American Music. Mutlu teaches Anatolian and Kurdish traditions at Maqam and Modal Cultures along the Silk Roads. The way they absorbed music from home is reflected in how they shape their lessons. Music isn't learned through rules but by experiencing it, living it - both are convinced of that. And one thing is indispensable: the story.

"If you want a student to feel a deep connection with the music, you always have to tell the story", Mutlu explains. "Who wrote it? And above all: why?" Lilian offers a concrete example: in some Brazilian traditions, a melody sounds cheerful while the lyrics are about loss or death. "So you sing it with a big smile, even though you're actually singing about something sad."

Music purely from feeling
That very combination - story and context - is at the heart of Global Musics' renewed curriculum. When Lilian and Mutlu joined Codarts fifteen years ago, that was far from obvious.

"We mustn't forget that we're in Europe", says Lilian. "Certain standards apply here. Many things have to be measured: notes, rhythm, technique." But the need to make and feel music cannot be measured. "That lives in your heart." Mutlu knows this intimately. His father can barely read or write, yet makes music purely from feeling. "He knows nothing about notation or sheet music, but he plays, sings and tunes the bağlama better than anyone."

Making music with people
"In Brazil, performance isn't proof of what you've learned", Lilian continues. "You perform because it's your life - who you are. You affirm your identity through it. And that performance invites others to join in." She gives the roda de samba as an example. In this traditional communal singing, there is no stage. People sing and play around a large table and everyone takes part. "Once I stood next to a woman who was screeching terribly out of tune right in my ear. But we were singing together, and that was the most beautiful thing." When that experience has to fit within fixed frameworks, something changes. "Then judgement takes over. And you lose the spontaneity and the joy."

Listening, not reading
Mutlu recognises the tension that fixed frameworks can create. For him, this took the form in the score. Explaining traditional music through written notation simply didn't work. "A score can't capture the small nuances of this music", he says. "Things like ornaments or glissandos - smooth transitions between notes. You have to hear them, not read them." So he decided to do it differently: listen first, then repeat. Without a score.

He remembers the moment he left it out of his lesson for the first time. "No score today", he told his student. "I'll play, give the time signature, you listen and repeat. Nothing more." It worked. They played through an entire piece in one lesson - something that had never happened before. "This is how we need to carry on", the student said.

Music under your skin
Lilian developed her own approach too. Long before the curriculum changed, she would research the history and context of every style she covered, and make it accessible through text, translation and video. Her goal: to immerse students so deeply in the music that they come to know it from the outside and from within. "You only let it go once you feel it has gone under your skin."

What changes when you understand it
What existed for years at the margins of World Music, now stands at the centre of Global Musics. And both lecturers are convinced: it is unique. "To let a student learn like this, with this level of depth and information - I haven't seen it anywhere else", says Lilian. "Nor in Anatolia", Mutlu adds. "There, they have the cultural knowledge but don't put it to use."

Global Musics makes a fundamental difference to students, he believes. "You can see it on their faces - that moment of: yes! I can actually play this music." Lilian adds: "At a programme like this, you're challenged from every direction. You come face to face with the world - and that's multiple worlds. But if you're willing to learn a great deal - not just the music, but everything behind it - you can grow enormously. You might even surpass us. And that, to me, is the most beautiful thing to witness."