Turkish composer and performer Erberk Eryılmaz has graced many of the world's most prestigious venues, such as Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Cuba, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., with his music that aims to bring the energy of traditional music from Anatolia and its surroundings to the concert stage with a creative and dramatic perspective. In 2022, his album "Dances of the Yoğurt Maker," produced by Judith Sherman, won a Grammy Award and two gold medals at the Global Music Awards in the categories of composer and performer.
His works and performances have been broadcast numerous times on various radio channels such as TRT and the National Public Radio in the United States, including Performance Today, the program with the highest audience in the United States. His music has been described by the Washington Post as "a burst of energy from a whirling dervish."
Eryılmaz’s work "Ay mıydı, gün müydü yüzü?" was included on a titanium disk sent into lunar orbit in 2023 as part of the MoonArts project, a collaboration between NASA, Google, and the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. The first performance of this piece took place at NASA’s headquarters in the hangar where the largest rocket in history, Saturn V, is displayed.
As a composer, conductor, pianist, and performer of folk percussion instruments, he has performed with many significant ensembles such as the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, European Union Chamber Orchestra, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Gedik Philharmonic, Austin Camerata, Apollo Chamber Players, Carpe Diem and Del Sol string quartets, WindSync, ZOFO four-hand duet, and the Bowen McCauley Dance Company. He has shared the stage with notable artists like Christopher Zimmerman, Andres Cardenes, Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, İsmail Lumanovski, Ellen Jewett, and Asım Kuzuluk.
Among the awards and competitions Eryılmaz has won are the "Diemente Honor Award" given by the University of Hartford, first place as a pianist in the Van Rooy Musical Excellence Competition, the string quartet composition competition held by Carnegie Mellon University with his pieces Yoğurtçunun Oyun Havaları and Minyatürler Set No.5, and the Harry G. Archer Orchestra Composition Competition with his piece Tepki 2 "fikri hür, vicdanı hür, irfanı hür". Additionally, in 2014, he was awarded the BNY Mellon Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement by BNY Mellon for his artistic activities and work in Pittsburgh.
Eryılmaz received his education at Samsun Municipal Conservatory, Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory, the Hartt School in the USA, Carnegie Mellon University, and finally earned his doctorate at Rice University. Eryılmaz continues his work as a faculty member in the Department of Composition at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University.
BUĞRA KUTBAY, Anatolian Wind Instruments
Born in 2001 in Samsun, Buğra Kutbay completed his primary and secondary education in Samsun. At an early age, he was deeply influenced by the performances of master davul-zurna musicians—immigrants from Thessaloniki—at weddings in their village, which introduced him to wind instruments. At the age of 12, he began his musical journey with an old zurna that his uncle had bought from an old instrument shop and given to him as a gift. After meeting Raif Demirci, he started studying wind instruments such as the kaval, mey, duduk, ney, tütek, and sipsi. He also had the opportunity to meet and work closely with performers such as Halil Çokyürekli and Hüseyin Geçer.
He graduated from Samsun İlkadım Fine Arts High School and was later admitted to the Instrument Training Department of the Faculty of Performing Arts at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University. During his university studies, he received instruction from academician-musicians such as Hakkı Alper Maral, Yunus Emre, Sinan Ayyıldız, Erberk Eryılmaz, and Önder Özkoç. In 2016, he passed the audition and became an instrumentalist with the TRT Ankara Radio Youth Choir. In 2023, he graduated with top honors from the Instrument Training Department of the Faculty of Performing Arts at Ankara Music and Fine Arts University.
In addition to festival and project concerts held in Türkiye, he has performed at festivals in Mongolia and France. He has shared the stage with zurna virtuosos such as Samir Kurtov and Lüleburgazlı Küçük Hasan. Kutbay has also appeared as a soloist in works written for orchestras such as the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, the State Polyphonic Choir, and the Gedik Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kutbay is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Faculty of Performing Arts of Ankara Music and Fine Arts University and also serves as a guest lecturer at the same institution.