Gürer Aykal (born May 22, 1942) is a Turkish conductor and adjunct professor at Bilkent University. He has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999.

Education

Aykal was born in

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630. The city is l ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He studied at the Ankara State Conservatory, completing a course on

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

in 1963 (under Necdet Remzi Atak) and another on composition in 1969 (under

Ahmed Adnan Saygun Ahmet Adnan Saygun (; 7 September 1907 – 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. One of a group of composers known as the The Turkish Five, Turkish Five who pioneered Music of Turkey#Western influence on Turk ...

). He went on to study conducting in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

, where he was taught by such conductors as André Previn and George Hurst. He then went to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

for further study, graduating with a D.M.A. in conducting from Santa Cecilia Academy of Music in 1973. Finally, on Adnan Saygun's request, he stayed in Italy to study

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

and

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra.

Career

Aykal has conducted the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the

English Chamber Orchestra The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra spe ...

, the

London Philharmonic Orchestra The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is a British orchestra based in London. One of five permanent symphony orchestras in London, the LPO was founded by the conductors Thomas Beecham, Sir Thomas Beecham and Malcolm Sargent in 1932 as a riv ...

, the Sinfonieorchester des Norddeutschen Rundfunks Hamburg, the Ankara Chamber Orchestra (which he founded with Suna Kan), and the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. In 1975 he became the principal conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. From 1987 to 1991, Aykal was the music director of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

, and subsequently from 1992 to 2004 he served as the music director of the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, also in Texas. Among Aykal's other appointments since returning to Turkey, he was named Artistic Director of the Antalya International Piano Festival in the summer of 2014.

Awards

The Turkish government awarded him the honorary title of State Artist in 1981 for his services to music.

References

Sources and external links

*Harriet Smith, "Turkish Delight" (''

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC, was the original owner and publisher together with ...

'' 12:11, July 2004: pp 28–31)
"Gürer Aykal"
— Leyla Gencer Voice Competition page

— Bilkent University 1942 births Living people Texas classical music State Artists of Turkey Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni Academic staff of Bilkent University Ankara State Conservatory alumni People from Eskişehir 21st-century Turkish conductors (music) {{Turkey-musician-stub