CİHAT AŞKIN

Istanbul-born Turkish violinist Cihat Aşkın is recognized as the international representative of the Turkish violin school, with an identity shaped as a man of culture who commands both the Eastern and the Western worlds and stands with a foot on two continents. On the concert tours he has undertaken as a violin virtuoso, he has given recitals and concerts in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, sharing the fruits of Turkish and universal art with audiences around the world. Alongside his stage performances, Aşkın — invited for countless radio and TV recordings as well as for educational activities, conferences and workshops — has also been admired as a versatile and international man of art through the educational and artistic institutions he has established.

Enrolled in the conservatory by his family, who discovered his interest in music at a very young age, Aşkın enjoyed a successful period as a student thanks to his extraordinary talent and disciplined work, graduating from the class of Prof. Ayhan Turan. He gave his first recital at the age of 11, and by the age of 15 he had performed all of Paganini’s Caprices and, giving his first concerts with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey, became known nationwide. He later continued his studies with Rodney Friend at the Royal College of Music in London and with Yfrah Neaman at The City University, completing his Master’s and Doctoral programs.

The recipient of many national and international awards, including the Menuhin and Flesch competitions, Aşkın was presented with the Rome Foyer des Artistes in 2002, The Kennedy Center gold medal in 2009, the Buenos Aires medal of honor in 2017, the İKSV honorary award in 2021, and most recently the Sevda-Cenap And honorary award and gold medal in 2021. Receiving the titles of Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor in 2006 at Istanbul Technical University, the artist carried out his academic duties and artistic activities under the same roof as founder and co-director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM) between 1999 and 2012, and also served as Director of the Turkish Music State Conservatory between 2008 and 2012.

Recognized by music authorities as one of today’s leading violin virtuosos, Aşkın is a world artist who, as an international violin virtuoso, has to date taken part in countless festivals across 4 continents and 53 countries, given concerts and recitals, shared the stage with esteemed artists such as Shlomo Mintz, Yoel Levi, Raphael Wallfisch, Jesús López-Cobos and Ida Haendel, and received praise from the world press.

In addition to being invited as a jury member to international competitions held in countries such as Argentina, Bulgaria, China, Israel, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Serbia, Aşkın has also been invited to give masterclasses and lessons at leading universities in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. He served as a faculty member at the Keshet Eilon Summer School in Israel between 1999 and 2011 and at the Crans-Montana Summer School in Switzerland between 2011 and 2017, and has organized summer and winter schools in Italy, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 2001, the artist founded the Cihat Aşkın and His Little Friends (CAKA) project to introduce children to musical aesthetics at an early age, and through this movement — described as a revolution in music — he launched the stage careers of many talented artists in Turkey and the surrounding region. Aşkın also founded the Aşkın Ensemble in 2007 to support young artists and, in 2017, consolidated his educational activities under Aşkın Academia.

Having begun composing at a very early age, Aşkın has also created arrangements for violin and various instruments as well as film scores. With his 1998 album Minyatürler (Miniatures), he endeared the violin to Turkey and began working with Kalan Müzik. Through this, he made the first CD recording of many Turkish works, and in 2006 he released the Kreutzer 42 Études album, a first in the world’s violin literature. Aşkın’s recordings have been released not only by Kalan Müzik but also by Warner Classics, Meridian, CPO, Marco Polo and Naxos. Most recently, in 2019, he recorded Turkish Waltzes with Kalan Müzik, and this project — released on both CD and LP — attracted great attention.

Cihat Aşkın’s recordings of “Bach’s Solo Sonatas and Partitas” and Schubert’s sonatinas, made in Italy in 2019, were released on CD by the Italian company Limen Music.

Having brought many institutional structures to musical life, Aşkın founded the Istanbul Chamber Orchestra in 2001 and began its season concerts, organized educational concerts in various cities of Turkey within the CAKA education project, and since 2007 has regularly held the CAKA Summer and Winter schools both at home and abroad. Organizing the ‘Violins of the World’ festival since 2013, the artist has also, in order to preserve cultural identity and support young artists, carried out regular concert and radio programs at TRT between 2014 and 2023. The artist serves as general music director of the Aromsa Young Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 2021, and of Adrafest, which he founded in Burhaniye in 2023.

Yalçın Tura, Ertuğrul Oğuz Fırat, Arda Agoşyan, Oğuzhan Balcı, Kamran İnce, Hasan Tura and Aydın Karlıbel have dedicated their works to Cihat Aşkın. In his concerts, the artist plays Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume (1846) and Gaetano Sgarabotto (1924) violins. Cihat Aşkın is an IMK Classic Management, Kalan Müzik and Larsen Strings artist.