Burcu Karadağ

Born in Istanbul in 1979, Burcu Karadağ is known as one of the masters of what is one of the deep-rooted instruments of Turkish music. His journey into music started at a very early age. The daughter of a truck driver father and a civil servant mother, Karadağ's family discovered her talent for music when she was only 11 years old, thanks to the organ her father brought from abroad. This discovery was the beginning of a period that would change his life.

When he took the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory exams, the extraordinary talent shown by the jury members directed him to the reed class. Although her family thought that it would not be appropriate for a young child to deal with such a difficult instrument, Burcu Karadağ did not give up on this decision, thanks to her love of learning the ney and her trust in her teachers.

While taking reed lessons from Salih Bilgin and Niyazi Sayın, he received Turkish music, solfege and theory training from Erol Sayan and Doğan Dikmen. He also improved himself in a versatile way by taking Western music lessons from Ali Eral. Karadağ, who is interested in the art of memorization along with music, strengthened his interest in the art of marbling as a student of Fuat Başar and Tülay Taşlacıoğlu in 1996.

Burcu Karadağ, who completed her undergraduate education at Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory between 1996 and 2000, continued her academic career rapidly. In 2008, he completed his master's degree at Haliç University Social Sciences Institute with his thesis titled 'A Proposal on 4-Year Undergraduate Ney Education in Turkish Music Conservatories'.

Karadağ, who started working as a lecturer at the same university, has been teaching ney to students there since 2005. In addition, he gave ney lessons at Caferağa Madrasa affiliated with the Turkish Culture Service Foundation between 1998 and 2012. Karadağ, who was accepted to TRT Istanbul Radio as a reed player in 1999, took part in many radio and television programs there.

In 2001, he prepared a solo album consisting of outstanding works of the Classical Turkish Music repertoire.

Drawing attention with her successes in her musical career, Burcu Karadağ is known not only for her reed playing, but also for her collaborations with many important musicians. He worked with names such as Fazıl Say, Tuluğ Tırpan, Sertab Erener, Trilok Gurtu, Martin Grubinger, Zülfü Livaneli. In 2012, he was the soloist of the Hezarfen Ney Concerto composed by Fazıl Say and performed the world premiere of this concerto in Mannheim, Germany.

The concerto, later released on CD and DVD, received great acclaim. Karadağ, who represented Türkiye at the International Flute Festival held in New Delhi, India in the same year, was the soloist of the "Istanbul Symphony" composed by Fazıl Say, and this work was performed with the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra and was deemed worthy of the ECHO Klassik Award, one of the most prestigious awards in Europe.