| Art Profile |
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Starting his academic musical career late, Tolga Özdemir has worked individually with Faris Akarsu for piano and theory in Pera Güzel Sanatlar Academy while pursuing his undergraduate degree at Marmara University, Management School and working as a gig musician with various musical groups in Istanbul, Turkey. After graduating in 1999, he was accepted to “Advanced Studies in Music” school for graduate studies for composition in Istanbul Technical University. He had an opportunity to work with Prof. Kamran Ince, Prof. Mark Wingate, Dr. Fernando Benadon and Prof. İlhan Usmanbaş at MIAM. After completed his graduate program with an honors degree he was accepted to the University of Memphis, composition DMA.
Growing up in Anatolia, Özdemir had a chance to absorb many Eastern and Western cultural heritages simultaneously. As a result, he has created a composition language in which he constructs disparate musical (or even non-musical on occasion) layers, which blend into each other in various degrees. These layers can be located on different tonal centers, played in different tempos and represented as different musical genres (folkloric, diatonic, modal, dodecaphonic etc.), which creates not only “polyphonic” but also “polycultural” music.
His music has been played in the USA, Greece, Turkey, UK, Vietnam, New Zealand and Brazil so far. While his music is gaining international recognition, Tolga Özdemir is currently teaching composition and piano in Akdeniz University, Antalya and working on his “Ex Oriente Lux” project.
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