Hüseyin Kıyak

He began his musical education at the age of twelve at the Denizli Municipality Conservatory. In 2007 he joined the TRT Istanbul Radio Youth Choir, where he studied with Serap Mutlu Akbulut. During his undergraduate studies in Turkish Language and Literature at Marmara University, he began, as a second university degree, at the Istanbul University Ottoman-Period Comparative Music Department. He studied voice with Şamil Gökberk; piano with Mehru Ensari; and repertoire with Tülin Yakarçelik and Abidin Gerçeker. He completed his master’s degree in 2013 at the Marmara University Institute of Turkic Studies. In 2008 he founded the Marmara University Turkish Music Ensemble and conducted this choir until 2011. Between 2012 and 2014 he took part in the work and concerts of the Istanbul University Turkish Music Performance Board under the direction of Tülûn Korman. He studied Hamparsum notation with Varujan Zilciyan and Byzantine notation with Miltiadis Pappas. Since 2015 he has served as a vocal artist in the Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir. In 2016 he took part in the research and Ottoman-Turkish text translations for the Tanburi Cemil Bey Collected Works published by Kalan Muzik. In 2016 he created the “Those Left in the Shadows” project with young musicians serving in the Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir and organized concerts with this ensemble. In 2016 he served as presenter and scriptwriter in the program series titled “The Immortal Composer Tanburi Cemil Bey” broadcast on TRT. Between 2018 and 2023 he carried out archival activities within the scope of the Istanbul and Music Research Program (IMAP) established under the Istanbul Research Institute and the Pera Museum. Between 2015 and 2017 he took part in Turkish music programs broadcast on Acik Radyo. Between 2021 and 2025 he prepared and presented music programs at TRT Istanbul Radio. In 2022 he worked for one year as a visiting lecturer at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. In addition to various academic publications on musicology, he wrote articles for newspapers and magazines and served as editor of many music books. He translated Halid Ziya Uşaklıgil’s famous novel Ask-i Memnu into contemporary Turkish, published by Everest Publishing. Tanburi Cemil Bey Through Hundred-Year-Old Texts was published in 2017; Mesud Cemil with His Plectrum, Bow and Pen in 2018; and Istanbul’s Vast Voice Münir Nureddin Selçuk, which he prepared together with İncila Bertuğ, was published in 2022 by Kubbealti Nesriyat. He annotated and prepared for publication Sermet Muhtar’s writings on music, published in 2025 under the title The Music of Old Istanbul; and the book he wrote titled The Presidential Classical Turkish Music Choir on Its 50th Anniversary was published in 2025 by Pan Publishing. He served as artistic director of the project titled “A Voyage to the Roots,” which took part in the 52nd Istanbul Music Festival organized by IKSV and which he designed together with Şirin Pancaroğlu. He continues to prepare and present various programs at Istanbul’s various cultural centers, at the Kubbealti Academy Culture and Art Foundation and at the Dede Efendi House. Since 2021 he has taught at the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory, and since 2024 as a lecturer at Marmara University. He continues his doctoral studies in the Musicology and Music Theory Department at the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory.