BY EKİNSU POLAT (AMER/III)
Assoc. Prof. Onur Türkmen is a faculty member at the Department of Music and the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts. After graduating from Berklee College of Music with a degree in Jazz Composition in 1998, Onur Türkmen completed his master’s and PhD in composition at İstanbul Technical University’s MIAM (Center for Advanced Studies in Music) under Pieter Snapper and İlhan Usmanbaş, with a doctoral dissertation titled “Contemporary Instrumental Techniques Applied to Turkish Music Instruments: Kemençe, Ud, Kanun, Ney.” Beginning his academic career at Bilgi University’s Music Department in 2004, he joined Bilkent University in 2007, where he currently teaches composition and European Music History and has served as associate dean since 2017. His works have received international acclaim, including finalist position at the ISCM World Music Days Composers’ League with Question (2006). He won the Razumovsky Ensemble Competition with his Second String Quartet (2008) and received the ISCM Composers’ League Award for Lines for an Ensemble (2012). He has been recognized at Andante magazine’s Donizetti Classical Music Awards, winning Composer of the Year in 2018 after multiple nominations. His Sailing to Byzantium: A Ritualistic Drama was supported by Culture Ireland (2015) and the Arts Council of Ireland (2019), while his Songs from a Circle: A Ritualistic Drama for One received backing from the Eduard van Beinum Stichting (2017). As artistic director of NK Ensemble, Dr. Türkmen’s work focuses on integrating Turkish musical instruments and modes into contemporary compositions. He is also a collaborator on the European Research Council project “Beyond East and West” and conducts research on the relationship between Turkish modes and just intonation. Currently, he is teaching MSC 100 (Freshman Concert), MSC 111 (Composition I), MSC 173 (Origins of Western Music: From Antiquities to Baroque), MSC 200 (Sophomore Concert), MSC 273 (Music in Europe during the Age of the Enlightenment), MSC 300 (Junior Concert), MSC 400 (Senior Concert) and MSC 599 (Master’s Thesis).
What’s one piece of information from your field that you think everyone should know?
Sound is a type of energy that moves in waves. You don’t see it, but it touches you. Therefore, music has such a physical aspect.
When and where do you do your best thinking?
There is no specific time. When I am working on a piece of music, I think about it all the time. This is how I work. Not just when I’m literally writing a piece on my computer or making sketches, but anytime I’m walking, cooking, shopping…
What distracts you?
In that sense, nothing distracts me. because it’s spread out in my life. It’s an inseparable part of my thinking process in daily life.
What are you most curious about?
How the properties of sound are associated with emotional depth.
What is the most common misconception about your work?
That composers work with inspiration. That’s a misleading idea, as is that uniqueness is a gift. Uniqueness is not a gift; rather, it requires a harder working process.
Which books have influenced you the most and why?
I think Oleg Grabar’s “The Mediation of Ornament” has been very influential in building the aesthetical aspects and, perhaps, the philosophical perspectives of my compositional approach.
If you weren’t an academic, what career would you choose?
I would likely be a freelance composer.
If you could go back to your undergraduate student years, what advice would you give to your younger self?
Don’t worry too much.
Why did you choose an academic career?
I think for composers it’s the career with the most advantages. You can be free and produce without the pressures of the music industry and so on. You can write more artistic music and research your music deeply under the shelter of the academy. This is the same worldwide.
What do you like the most about being at Bilkent?
The colleagues that I’ve learned a lot from and the brilliant students.
What projects are you working on currently?
I’m commissioned to write a piece about Göbeklitepe for the Dublin New Music Festival in 2026.
What is your best work?
I don’t know. There are works that have had more recognition and that highlight the cornerstones in my artistic life. Those would be, “Hat for Kemençe and Ensemble;” the other would be “Sailing to Byzantium.” Recently, my “Parlando Opera, Gilgamesh.”
What excites you about your work and what is the coolest thing about your work?
I think my music can touch people emotionally, even though it is technically advanced. It’s not really an accessible music, but it touches people. I’ve experienced very special cases in which the audience was overly touched by my music.
What has been the most exciting moment of your career so far? Could you share a turning point or a defining moment in your career?
It’s really been step-by-step. I can’t tell if there was a specific event that changed everything.
If you had unlimited funds, what would you like to do research on?
There are a lot of similarities to how I approach Turkish music makams and the networking models in other scientific fields. With unlimited funds, I would work on that.
