Onur Türkmen (1972, Eskişehir) is a Turkish composer whose work mainly centers upon two concepts: “Hat”, which explores temporal and timbral aspects of Turkish music makams and instruments, and “Ritualistic Drama”, which focuses on the interconnections between poetry, drama, and ritual.
Onur Türkmen is a BT ARTS artist
Türkmen has won the 8th Donizetti Classical Music, Composer of the Year Award in Turkey in 2018.
His pieces have been performed by many different ensembles at Acht Brücken Festival (2024), Istanbul Music Festival (2024 and 2008), exxi jahrhundert concerts (2022 and 2023), Bristol New Music (2022), November Music Festival (2018), Schiermonnikoog Festival (2018), German Historical Institute International Musicology Congress (2016), Left Coast Chamber Ensemble/ Volti Chorus season opening concert (2016), Maerz Musik Festival (2013), China-Turkey Communication Concerts (2013), ISCM (2012, Belgium), MUSMA (2012), Schleswig Holstein Festival (2011), Mediterraneus Project (2010), Kreuztanbul (2009) among others. He gave masterclasses and lectures on his music at the University of California Davis (2016), Würzburg Hochschule für Musik (2017), University of Memphis (2020), and University of Bristol (2021).
He has composed three Ritualistic Dramas so far. Sailing to Byzantium has been performed by Yurodny Ensemble (Dublin) (recipient of the Ireland Outcome Grant Summer 2015 and a new work award from the Arts Council of Ireland 2019). Songs from a Circle has been performed by Diamanda La Berge Dramm (Amsterdam) (Songs from a Circle, recipient of Eduard van Benium Stichting grant, 2018). A recording of this piece is published by Diatribe Records Online in 2024. Limon Ağacı (lemon tree) was commissioned by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (project supported by Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation), and premiered at the Istanbul International Music Festival in 2024.
He is the collaborator of the European Research Center Project “Beyond East and West: Developing and Documenting, and Evolving Transcultural Practice” and Ellen Jewett’s Klasik Keyifler. His solo violin piece is featured in Ellen Jewett’s CD “Beautiful and Unowned” published by Naxos Records (2019).
His orchestral works are performed by Anima Musikae Orchestra, Gedik Philharmony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Orkestra Akademik Başkent, Ankara Youth Symphony Orchestra, Presidental Symphony Orchestra (CSO) and in 2023, “Gel” was recorded by Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin with the conductor Howard Griffiths and in June 2024 was published by Prospero, in the “Turkish Flavours” album as a CD as well as digital platforms. This album is nominated for International Classical Music Awards in the Symphonic Music Category, 2025.
In 2024, the concert version of his parlando opera, Gılgamış, (libretto by Şebnem İşigüzel) premiered at Ankara International Music Festival, supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the Sevda Cenap And Foundation, and the Goethe Institut.
He is the artistic director of NK Ensemble a song-based new music ensemble that focuses on using Traditional Turkish Music makams and instruments in new music. NK Ensemble has published two albums so far. “Havuz” was published in 2023 by Gedik Sanat, and “Lahza” was published in 2019 by Bilgi Music.
He studied composition at Berklee College of Music (undergraduate) and İstanbul Technical University’s MIAM (master’s and PhD.) with İlhan Usmanbaş.
He is an associate professor and assistant dean at Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts in Ankara https://music.bilkent.edu.tr/
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onur_T%C3%BCrkmen
Quotations
“Gel, Komm, for orchestra, is a piece by Onur Türkmen at the end of the program. This is about the cathartic effect of fire in a mystical-ritualistic piece with a richly elaborate sound” (Pizzicato, Remy Franck’s Journal about Classical Music)
“(on Hâl)…and Onur Türkmen takes us into that spiritual realm where reason and emotion meet symbiotically” (exxi.jahrhundert’s concert announcement text)
“(on Kurşundan / of lead) a moving lament for the past times” (BBC New Music Show)
“Onur Türkmen is one of the few composers who has been deeply, conscientiously, and, I think, pioneering transcultural music (…) Onur is for me the perfect cultural and aesthetic “ambassador” for an artistically and musically convincing treatment of Turkish Makams in a contemporary context” (Ulrich Mertin, violist, Hezarfen Ensemble’s co-director, podcast at Van Outernational)
“(…) (on “Beautiful and Unowned” for solo violin) this composition is full of mystery and magic” (Glyn Pursglove, Music Web International)
“In a real sense Türkmen has expanded the vocabulary of international Postmodernism, because as he explains it, his compositional technique refers to a traditional Turkish calligraphic term, hat, or line, which leads to many cultural ramifications” (Huntley Dent, Fanfare Magazine)
“(…) (on “but you alone” for choir and string quartet) if Volti had sung nothing but vowels, this piece still would have made its mark” (Rebecca Wishnia, music critic, San Francisco Classical Voice)
“(…) I perceive in his works an imposing intellectual edifice, and they typically provoke in me a flood of meanings and interpretations. From listening to Sailing to Byzantium only one time, I already glimpsed the possibility of a great number of webs of connections that the verbal and musical components can form” (Jane Harrison, professor of musicology, personal blog)
“For me, Onur Türkmen is one of the most important living composers. The use of singular musical lines driven from classical Turkish Art to create a world of images in order to reflect the spirit of our times and also sending shocking messages to our consciousness decayed by virtual realities renders him unique” (Orhun Orhon, conductor, CD liner notes, “Mozart, Beethoven, Türkmen, Ankara Youth Symphony Orchestra”, Çağsav Müzik)
Awards and Supports
“Gel” featured in the “Turkish Flavours, 100 Years of Turkish Symphonic Music” album, a co-production with Deutschlandradio, performed by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and conducted by Howard Griffiths, published by Prospero Classical Records is nominated for International Classical Music Awards in the Symphonic Music Category, 2025.
“Limon Ağacı” for NK Ensemble commissioned by İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts recipient of Ernest von Siemens Music Foundation Support, 2024
“Gılgamış,” a parlando opera for 3 actors, chorus, and ensemble on a text by Şebnem İşigüzel, recipient of Ernest von Siemens Music Foundation Support, 2024
“Sailing to Byzantium a Ritualistic Drama on the Moon, Swans and Soul through the Poetry of W.B. Yeats and Ahmet Haşim”, recipient of the New Work Award from the Arts Council of Ireland / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, 2019
Donizetti Classical Music Awards, Composer of the Year award, 2018
“Songs from a Circle: A Ritualistic Drama for One”, recipient of Eduart van Benium Stichting Grant, The Netherlands, 2017
Donizetti Classical Music Awards, Composer of the Year finalist, 2017
“A Line for 5 Musicians” selected for 34th Asian Composers League, Conference and Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam, 2016
“Sailing to Byzantium a Ritualistic Drama on the Moon, Swans and Soul through the Poetry of W.B. Yeats and Ahmet Haşim”, recipient of the Culture Ireland Outcome Grant Summer, 2015
Donizetti Classical Music Awards, Composer of the Year finalist, 2013
League of Composers – ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music World Music Days), Competition Winner, “Lines for an Ensemble (for chamber ensemble)”, Antwerp, Belgium, 2012
Recipient of Razumovsky Ensembles’ (London) award that entailed a performance at 36. International Istanbul Music Festival for “String Quartet No.2 (for clarinet and string quartet)”, 13 June 2008
League of Composers – ISCM Competition Finalist, “Question (for solo clarinet)”, 2006
Major Commissions
“Nedir?” for orchestra, soprano and chorus, commissioned by Presidential Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Turkey (CSO) for their season that marks its 200 years, 2025
“Kar”, for SATB chorus, commissioned by the Turkish State Choir, 2024
“Gılgamış”, a parlando opera for narrator, chorus, and ensemble on a text by Şebnem İşigüzel, a project funded by Ernest von Siemens Music Foundation, Klasik Keyifler, Goethe-Institut and Sevda Cenap And Foundation, 2024
“Limon Ağacı (lemon tree)” commissioned by İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts on “an unrelenting pain: compulsory exchange of populations” funded by Ernest von Siemens Music Foundation for İstanbul International Music Festival, 2023
“Hâl” commissioned by ensemble xxi. jahrhundert, Vienne, 2022
“Makam miniatures” commissioned by Leading Voices 2022 organized by European Choral Association – Europa Cantat, Utrecht, 2022
“The Morn of Silence” commissioned by Goethe Institut for Nina Janssen-Deinzer and Peyee Chen duo, 2021
A song cycle to be performed by an ensemble with Turkish Music instruments, Project supported by Istanbul Technical University Scientific Research Project and Gedik Sanat, 2021
“Instant Dances XV”, commissioned by Gedik Foundation for Education and Social Aid for Önder Baloğlu’s “Unvoiced Diaries” Project, 2020
“Kurşundan / of lead”, commissioned by European Research Council for Hezarfen Ensemble, 2019
“Gel”, commissioned by Gedik Philharmonic Orchestra for their 2019-2020 season opening concert, 2019
“Bir Güneş”, commissioned by Friederike Heumann for her viola da gamba and voice duo, 2019
“Songs from a Circle: A Ritualistic Drama for One”, commissioned by Diamanda La Berge Dramm, this work is a recipient of Eduart van Benium Stichting Grant, Netherlands, 2017
“Nomad” commissioned by Özcan and Birsen Ulucan, the project supported by Anima Musikae Chamber Orchestra (Budapest), 2017
“Points” commissioned by Hezarfen Ensemble (İstanbul) for Guitar Plus Festival (Würzburg), funded by Würzburg Hochschule für Music and European Research Council (ERC) project: “Beyond East and West: Developing and Documenting an Evolving Transcultural Musical Practice”, 2016
“but you alone” for chamber choir and string quartet, commissioned by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (San Francisco) for LCCE 2016-17 Season opening concert featuring a collaboration with Volti Chamber Choir, 2016
“Sailing to Byzantium a Ritualistic Drama on the Moon, Swans and Soul through the Poetry of W.B. Yeats and Ahmet Haşim” commissioned by Yurodny Ensemble (Dublin), project supported by Culture Ireland and Sevda Cenap And Foundation (Ankara), 2016
“Devrildim” for bass voice and orchestra, commissioned by CRR Concert Hall (İstanbul) and Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Ankara) for the Battle of Gallipoli in Memoriam Project, 2015
“Hat for 3 Percussion Players” for percussion ensemble, commissioned by Sevda Cenap And Foundation (Ankara) for Music Masters on Air: a durable cooperation project between festivals, in partnership with radio broadcaster’s concerts: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Santander (Spain), Klara Festival (Belgium), BEMUS (Serbia), Miedzynarodowy International Festival Wratislavia Cantans (Poland) and Ankara Music (Turkey) Festivals, 2012-2013
“Beautiful and Unowned” for solo violin commissioned by Ellen Jewett, for a CD project and concerts, 2012
“Reminiscences, Evocations and Echoes of a Common Memory” for chamber ensemble commissioned by Arts Council of Ireland for Hezarfen – Yurodny Ensembles’ Collaboration, 2012
“Hat for Kemençe and Strings” for kemençe and string ensemble/orchestra commissioned by Nermin Kaygusuz supported by Istanbul Technical University Research Project (BAP), 2012
“Hat: a line for two musicians” for piano and percussion commissioned by Arcobaleni Duo (Alessandria, Italy) for Mediterraneus Project including 4 classical music festivals in Italy: Livorno, Camogli, Ancona, Acqui Terme, 2010
Onur Türkmen 