Composition Student Receives Award in Bulgaria
Senay Uğurlu, a composition sophomore in the Department of Music of the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, received the third-place award in the Computer and Electronic Music category of the 2018 Computer Space competition for her piece “Labyrinth.”
Computer Space, an international nonprofit forum for computer art, is one of the largest such events in southeastern Europe; it has been held annually for 30 years and takes place in Sofia, Bulgaria. The forum consists of two parts, a competition and a festival. The competition offers awards in eight categories, ranging from computer and electronic music to mobile applications and art.
Senay was the youngest composer in her category. Her piece “Labyrinth” projects multiple layers upon a single idea, which brings its elements together in a tightly intertwined manner. The award ceremony was held on October 27 in Sofia, shortly after presentations by Senay and the other competitors on the artistic and technical aspects of their pieces. (By Arda Turhan (MUS/I)
Music School Student Takes First Place in Percussion Competition
Bilkent University Music Preparatory High School eighth-grade student Çetin Özen won first prize in the solo marimba category at the International Youth Percussion Competition, held November 1–6 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Çetin, born in Ankara in 2005, began taking lessons on percussion instruments from Aydın Mecid at the age of 10, while he was a student at the Bilkent University Music Preparatory Primary School. In 2015 and 2016, he was one of the child soloists in Fazıl Say’s “Nâzım” oratorio. In 2017, he started focusing on the marimba and since then has earned a number of awards: honorable mention at the International Nutcracker Young Talents Competition in Moscow (2017) and first prize at the Marimba Festival competition in Bamberg, Germany (2018), as well as his recent award from the International Youth Percussion Competition.
The competition, conducted by the St. Petersburg Percussion Society, included four instrumental categories (xylophone and snare drum; solo vibraphone; solo marimba; and percussion duo) and five age categories for students between the ages of 7 and 24.
After receiving news of Çetin’s award, Mr. Say congratulated him via social media, sharing a video of the young musician playing the marimba, along with a short biography.