Composition and Orchestral Conducting Major

Located at the crossroads of Eastern and Western cultures, Turkey has long had the opportunity to be a bridge between these two ancient civilizations, a position that has brought countless benefits. In addition to its constantly sensitive importance in economic and political terms on the global stage, this land also holds a significant cultural heritage in art, stretching from ancient times to the contemporary era. For these reasons, all forms of art created in this land have experienced the privilege and fate of emerging from the interactions between Eastern and Western cultures.

We live on the cultural heritage of this land, which has for centuries demonstrated to the world the beauty of human diversity and the consciousness of brotherhood, providing examples that people of all religions, languages, and races can live together under one roof. Looking at world music history, classical music composers, like in every civilized society, have served as cultural ambassadors to pass their cultures on to the future. When Mustafa Kemal Atatürk established the republic with this awareness, he sent some young composers, who are known today as the Turkish Five, abroad with state scholarships, helping them to learn the internationally recognized music science of the West, and encouraging them to return and contribute to our country. In 1981, UNESCO officially recognized the great leader Atatürk as one of the world’s greatest reformers. Under his innovative and developmental understanding, which is based on preserving our existing values, contemporary Turkish composers, like us, have many responsibilities to instill the ideas of free thinking, new ideas, and living in peace within society through art. Likewise, in this new era, as the number of Turkish conductors, whether trained in Turkey or abroad, continues to rise, orchestra conductors also possess the power and responsibility to permanently influence the cultural and artistic life of this land.

In the modernization process that began with the Turkish Five, as a 5th generation Turkish composer, I can confidently say that with the opportunities offered by Maltepe University Conservatory, the compositional and conducting training that young people will receive will not only offer them the chance to become civilized world artists; but will also enable them to carry forward the values and cultural heritage of the land they come from. Through the music they create or interpret, filtered through their own intellectual and emotional growth, they will pass on these values to society, thus advancing both our society and culture.

Dr. Armağan DURDAĞ Head of the Department of Composition and Conducting