Egemen Kesikli

Biography

Turkish musician Egemen Kesikli (pronounced Eh-gheh-men) received his doctorate in Composition from the University of Colorado Boulder, master’s from the University of Texas at Austin, and bachelor's from St. Olaf College. He currently serves as Instructor of Music Theory and Musicology at Colorado State University and as Artistic Director of CU Boulder SoundWorks.

Egemen's composition catalogue varies from orchestral works and concertos to chamber works featuring folk instruments, and his music has been heard at classical and folk music festivals, concert halls, bars and taverns. He studied composition in the US with Carter Pann, Daniel Kellogg, John Drumheller, Donald Grantham, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Timothy Mahr, and Justin Merritt, and in Istanbul with Mete Sakpinar and Ozkan Manav.

Along with composing, Egemen performs actively as conductor, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist, and he premiered works by contemporary composers such as Jim Simmons, JP Merz, and Conor Abbott Brown. He studied piano with Birsen Ulucan, Iris Senturker, and Kent McWilliams, and conducting with Timothy Mahr, Steven Amundson, and Robert Carnochan in the US and with Wolfgang Harrer in Vienna. Egemen performs regularly with his folk-pop ensemble, Turkish Massage Owl, playing a diverse catalogue of music inspired by the music of West Asia and Balkans, and he is one of the founding members of False Cognates, a maximalist queer pop project/band from Colorado.

Egemen is a graduate of TEV Inanc Turkes High School, where he started his formal music studies under the mentorship of Güher and Süher Pekinel.

When he is not composing, performing, or teaching, he enjoys cooking and collaborating on various arts projects with his family.