Türkçe

Education

Born 1976 in Turkey, Hakan Toker began his early musical education in a western-style conservatoire system at Bilkent University, School of Music and Performing Arts, Ankara; pre-college and college divisions. In 1996 he took a break from his studies and relocated in Iceland to study piano privately with Anna M. Sigurðardóttir. The following year he was admitted to the Indiana University School of Music in the USA, from which he received bachelor's degrees in piano and composition in 2000.

Early Performances

Starting in his teens, Hakan played numerous recitals in Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Denmark, Iceland and USA. He appeared on radio and TV stations in these countries, live and recorded. He received many positive reviews in the US and foreign press. At age 17, he played and collaborated with the Sochi Municipal Orchestra (Russia), presenting concerts of Turkish orchestral and traditional music, including his own music for piano and orchestra. He was the youngest artist to perform in the Istanbul International Music Festival in 1993. He was also the first Turk to participate in the Lvov Festival of Virtuosi in 1994, where he introduced contemporary Turkish piano music to the Ukrainian public. His early performances often featured music of lesser-known classical composers, along with the standard repertoire and his own music. After 2000, he veered towards entirely improvised concerts and world music.

Multicultural Influences

Along with his firm western-classical music education, Hakan grew-up listening to the sound of his native land, absorbing a treasure chest of diverse musical traditions that go back millennia. The influence of Turkish music can be heard in his compositions and improvisations. Other influences include Arabic, Azerbaijani, Austrian, Latin music and jazz.

Current Projects

Hakan Toker gives improvisational piano recitals that are interactive and multi-cultural. The audience has an important role in shaping the program. Typically he will take several tunes from different listeners, and combine them in one piece. He also turns people's phone numbers into musical pieces. Humor is a big part of his style. Click here for samples. His performances aim to fill the gap between high art and entertainment. His music speaks to classical, jazz and world music enthusiasts alike. See the reviews to get an idea of the kind of settings he likes to perform in.

On other occasions, he improvises music for silent films, based on leitmotifs he assigns to the characters in the movies. He has played for silent classics such as Metropolis (1927, Lang), Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1919), Intolerance (1916, Griffith), Three Ages (1923, Keaton), Phantom of the Opera (1925, Laemmle), Tabu (1931, Murnau, Flaherty) and more; in local movie theaters in Bloomington, Indiana.

Besides piano, he plays the kanun, a traditional Middle Eastern zither, and the accordion. He is a member of Salaam, Middle Eastern music ensemble; and Silk Road, Central Asian music ensemble.

He has collaborated with dancers, poets, trapeze artists, jugglers, electronic musicians and multi-media artists on various improvisational inter-artistic productions.

His new solo CD Turkish Music on Piano was released in September 2005.

Major performances

•Indianapolis Jazz Festival (Indianapolis, IN, 2002, 2004)
•Lotus World Music and Arts Festival (Bloomington, IN, 1998, 2002)
•F.A.M.E. Festival (Fort Wayne, IN, 2001)
•Genesis 2000 Festival (Chicago, IL, 2000, 2004)
•Izmir State Symphony Orchestra concert series (Turkey, 2000)
•The Lvov Festival of Virtuosi (Ukraine, 1994)
•Black Sea International Festival, with the Sochi Municipal Orchestra (Russia, 1994)
•Istanbul International Music Festival (Turkey, 1993)

Compositions

•Over 100 works featuring solo, chamber and orchestral music for classical medium; traditional Turkish music for ethnic instruments; and electronic music.

Studies

•Two Bachelor of Music degrees in piano and composition from Indiana University, School of Music (2000).
•Composition with: Sven-David Sandström, Don Freund, Samuel Adler, Martha Ptaszynska.
•Piano with: Emile Naoumoff, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Edward Auer, Anna M. Sigurðardóttir, Namik Sultanov.
•Jazz with: David Baker, Luke Gillespie; and electronic music with Jeff Hass and Christopher Cook at Indiana University.

Awards

•Dorothy L. Herriman Scholarship during studies at Indiana University.
•2004 Individual Artist Project grant from Indiana Arts Commission.

Musical Group Memberships

•Salaam, Middle Eastern music and dance ensemble, since 2000
•Silk Road (formerly Saba), Central Asian music ensemble, since 1998
•Orquesta Son, Salsa band, 2000-2004
•Qwertyt, avant-garde improvisational band, 2001-2002
•Indiana University New Music Ensemble, 1997-99