Bülent KÜÇÜK

He was born in Istanbul in 1977. In 1991 he began his music education at the Istanbul Anatolian Fine Arts High School. In 1995 he passed the entrance exam of the Music Education Department of the Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education. From his undergraduate education onward, he continued his viola studies with Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra artist Ersin Pamukçu. He worked as a viola artist in numerous orchestras, including the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Cemal Reşit Rey Symphony Orchestra and the Enka Symphony Orchestra. In 1997 he took part in the Brussels Sablon Baroque Festival with the Istanbul Baroque Ensemble, whose General Artistic Director was Prof. Leyla Pınar. He took part in tours to Bulgaria and Aspendos in 2002 and to Japan in 2003 with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. Between 2002 and 2007 he took part in the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gürer Aykal. Throughout this entire professional music career, he had the opportunity to make music alongside Turkish conductors such as Rengim Gökmen, Gürer Aykal, Ender Sakpınar, Naci Özgüç, Orhan Şallıel and Serdar Yalçın, foreign conductors such as Emil Tabakov, Andrew Greenwood, Alexander Rahbari, Reinhard Seehafer, Antonio Pirolli and Marek Pijarovski, and international artists such as İdil Biret, Fazıl Say, Gülsin Onay, Suna Kan, Hüseyin Sermet, Ayşegül Sarıca, Emre Elivar, Rene Giessen, Steven Isserlis, Alexander Rudin, Elina Kimanen and Lukas David. He also gave concerts at symphonic orchestra level with leading Turkish pop and rock bands such as MFO, Bulutsuzluk Ozlemi and Yeni Turku, and took part in various album recordings. In 2004 he attended the viola master class of Yuri Gandelsmann. In the same year, Küçük, who began teaching violin, viola and orchestra at TED Istanbul College, took part in the 35th Vienna Youth and Music Festival as conductor with the TED Istanbul College Major Orchestra in 2006. In 2008 he completed the Music Teaching Master’s Program at the Marmara University Institute of Educational Sciences. In 2010 the paper he presented at the 9th National Music Education Symposium organized by the Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education was published. Bülent Küçük, who gave a recital at the 2nd PERA International Music Festival held in 2012, held the positions of Head of the Music Department at TED Istanbul College between 2013 and 2016, and Deputy High School Principal between 2016 and 2020. In 2019 he completed the Music Teaching Doctoral Program at the Marmara University Institute of Educational Sciences. As of the 2020-2021 academic year, he works as a music teacher at SEV Uskudar American High School and continues his chamber music work.