Uçarsu Hasan

Hasan Ucarsu was born in Istanbul in 1965. When he was eleven years old, he began his musical training as a part time flute student at the İstanbul Municipal Conservatory. In 1983, when he was in the last year of Kadıköy Anadolu High School, he took private lessons from Muammer Sun for a short time; and after he graduated, he entered the Department of Composition at the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University. During the undergraduate program (1983-1990), he became a student of Ahmed Adnan Saygun and in the graduate program (1990-1992) he studied composition as the student of Cengiz Tanç. In the meantime, he attended the courses given by Cemal Reşit Rey, Bülent Tarcan, İlhan Usmanbaş, Afşar Timuçin, and Ahmet Yürür. In 1994, he went to USA and worked with George Crumb and Richard Wernick. In 1997, he got his doctorate degree (Ph. D.) from the University of Pennysylvania in the field of composition. Since 1998 he has been teaching at the Composition and Conducting Department of the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, İstanbul as Associate Professor of Composition. In 2009 he was appointed as Professor of Composition by the same institution. In the spring semester of 2007, he was invited by the Music School of Memphis University as visiting composer and faculty member. He also thought composition master classes at Ayvalık International Music Academy (AIMA) in the summer of 2007.
The composer was given the David Halstead Composition Award for his work titled Monologue; he recieved the Helen G. Weiss Composition Award for his work Mystic Fragments (University of Pennysylvania, 1995 and 1996); he won the first prize in the 1st Dr. Nejat Eczacıbaşı National Competition for Composition with his work Cries, Memories, and A Little Dream (İzmir, 1996). He shared the first prize in the 2nd Dr. Nejat Eczacıbaşı National Competition for Composition with his orchestral work Comet (İzmir, 1998), and he was given the second prize in the category of Large-scale Symphonic Works in the National Competition for Composition (Ankara-2004) of The Ministry of Culture with his ballet music called Ishmael's Story, and he was honoured with the title of Dean's Scholar in 1997 by the University of Pennysylvania for his academic studies.
Among his commissioned works, the choral works for the youth and the polyphonic choruses of the TRT (Turkish Radio and Television), the orchestral works for the Ministry of Culture, Mediterranean Youth Orchestra (OJMED-France) and Tekfen Culture and Art Foundation, the chamber music for the İstanbul Culture and Art Foundation, and the chamber music commissioned for the "Silk Road Project" whose art director was Yo Yo Ma, can be mentioned.
His works have been performed by the leading orchestras in Turkey like Presidential Symphony Orchestra, İstanbul, İzmir, Bursa State Symphony Orchestras, Akbank Chamber Orchestra, Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bilkent Academic Symphony Orchestra, and in addition by such orchestras and groups like the Moldova Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Moscow New Music Group, Antifonia Chorus (Romania), Schola Cantorum Chorus (Wien), Selonica New Music Ensemble, Tampa Bay Woodwind Quintet, Ensemble Mosaik (Berlin), New Music Ensemble-Boston, ART Woodwind Quintet (Skopje), Royal Liverpool Philarmonic Orchestra 10:10 Group, Lisboa Contemporary Music Group, Ensemble Phoenix (Basel) and Seattle Chamber Players (Washington).
These works were also performed in many concerts within the framework of different activities like the international festivals in Ankara (2002), in İstanbul (1996, 2006, 2008), in İzmir (1996) and in Eskişehir (1999); in the forums and conferences of the Composers' Union in the USA, Lancaster (1995); Florida (1996), in the Ankara New Music Festival (1993), in Grenzenlos Berlin-Istanbul, (Berlin, 1998) in Europamusicale 2000 (Munich, 2000), in the Southeastern European Countries Cultural Meeting (Selonica, 2000), at the Balkans Music Week (Skopje, 2000), at the Mexico City International Music Festival (2001), at the 8th &10th World Harp Congress (Geneva, 2002 - Amsterdam, 2008), at the International Niche Chorus Festival (2002), at the International Mediterranean Contemporary Music Days (Istanbul, 2005-2006), at ECUME (İstanbul, 2001), at Turkfest (London, 2004), at the Icebreaker-III (Seattle-Washington, 2006), at YouRope (Essen, 2006), at the Culturescapes (Basel, 2008). The composer's work of chamber music titled On the Backstreets of Istanbul, which he composed for the "Silk Road Project", is included in G. Schirmer's catalogue. His musical compositions are recorded in the CDs produced by Bilkent Music Productions, Kalan Music, PB Productions Ltd., CDBaby and by the TRT.

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