Murathan TURHAN

Through a foundation of familial inheritance of Turkish musical folklore (including folk dance) together with pre-school polyphonic choir experiences, he enrolled in Hacettepe University’s Ankara State Conservatory as a violin major at the age of 11 and set out knowing Eurogenetic art music in professional terms for the first time in his life. In the same institution, at a high school level, he studied in the music composition department. The works in which he sought to find subtleties between current academic trends in music composition and local musical values had been composed by him in these years. Afterwards, he enrolled in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels’ Music Writing &  Theory department. Through substantial education, he got in this institution and -in terms of music
performance- at this occasion, he had an opportunity to play/sing along in different genres with great musicians all around the world, Turhan enlarged his aesthetical range and had graduated in 2016.

As a music performer, he had many occasions to travel in Turkey, France, Belgium, and in the Netherlands to perform from Turkish folk music to Southern American music, Pop to Balkan, Rock to Jazz, Film music to Eurogenetic art music, busking to massive symphonic projects along with many great musicians including Eli Menezes, Rene Calvin, Guy Segers, Luc De Vos, Radi Kazakov, Seven Kadrievi, Hasan Hasanov, Artie Cortes, Justin Freer, Clara Sanabras, David De Geest. Meanwhile, he composed and arranged in various genres and did theoretical studies (translation, compendium, report, article, notation, analysis, etc.). He studied with many professors  such as Serdar Mukhatov, Hatıra Ahmedli-Caferov, Robert Seidel, Jan D’haene, Jurgen De Pillecyn, Bart Buyle, Rudy Vander Cruyssen, David De Geest, Klaas Columbier, Kathleen Coessens, Annelies Van Parys, Marc Vandewiele, Koen Buyens, Christian Klinkenberg, Kurt Bude, Wouter Lenaerts, Yves Seghers, Jeremy Woodruff, Jerfi Aji, Ivan Arion Karst, Paul Whitehead, Eray Altınbüken, Can Karadoğan, Kandemir Basmacıoğlu, Will Sumits, Taylan Özdemir are few to mention.
Taking a delicate account of philosophical, spiritual, ethical and intercultural facets of music and striving not to separate the nativity from his aesthetical vision in his musical productions and performances, Turhan -besides being a composer, keyboarded instruments player (piano, accordion, synthesizer) and digital notator- continues his academical life in the field of music theory at Istanbul Technical University’s Dr. Erol Üçer Center for Advanced Studies in Music since 2017.

Photo credit – Esranur Aydın