Selen Gülün
As a leading contemporary musician in Turkey, Selen Gülün attained critical acclaim internationally with her music being performed in 20 countries around the world including the USA, Brazil, Japan, Cambodia, Pakistan, Russia, Mozambique, Australia, and all around Europe.
Gülün has released seven albums: Just About Jazz Live (recjazz, 2005), Selen Gülün Trio Sürprizler (recjazz, 2006), Selen Gülün by Selen Gülün (re:konstruKt, 2009), Answers (pozitif, 2010), Başka (linrecords,2013), Kadinlar Matinesi (A.K. Müzik, 2017), Many Faces (iKi Muzik, 2019). Many Faces is Gülün's new duo album recorded live in Japan and Italy featuring Hakuei Kim (p), Keisuke Ohta (vln), Issei Igarashi (tpt), and Marcello Allulli (ts). Answers reached #6 and Başka reached #4 in the Jazz Tokyo Weekly Chart. Kadinlar Matinesi (The Women’s Matinee) was born out of Gülün's concert series featuring the works of women composers in Turkey. Gülün / Allulli / De Raymondi’s electroacoustic album KAPI is a multicultural project with her long-term Italian collaborators Marcello Allulli and Emanuele de Raymondi. She has released two singles by her own record label iKi Muzik: Sea by Sea, one of her contemporary classical music composition, recorded duo with Japanese cellist Orie Hirayama (2019), and two songs under the name of Yollar (2020) with her Japanese Trio.
Gülün's compositions have been premiered by the Dartford Symphony Orchestra and the Vellinger String Quartet (UK), Ensemble TRIS (Austria), sa.ne.na Percussion Ensemble, and Istanbul Modern Music Ensemble (Turkey). She has received many awards including the Charles Mingus Composition Award 1998 (USA), the British Council Visiting Arts, Creative Collaboration in Music 2003 (UK), and Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica’s Artist in Residence Award 2011 (Italy).
Gülün's book entitled “Women and Music in Turkey” was commissioned by Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica (Rome) and printed in an English/ Turkish edition by Istanbul Bilgi University Press, April 2019.
Gülün studied music at the Istanbul University and the Mimar Sinan University State Conservatories and graduated from Istanbul University’s Business Administration Department. In 1998, she received her B.A. in Jazz Composition summa cum laude from the Berklee College of Music. She received her Master's in Music at Istanbul Technical University's Center of Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM). She taught Piano Performance, Music Theory, and Composition at Istanbul Bilgi University's Music Department from 1998 to 2016. She has given lectures on new music and contemporary music at the Berklee College of Music (Boston), The New School (New York), the Malmö Academy of Music, the Utrecht School of the Arts, TEDx Bogazici University among others.