Hakan A. Toker

Istanbul, Turkey

Hakan A. Toker was born in 1976 and he’s from the southern Turkish town Mersin. He holds a BM from Indiana University School of Music, double majoring in piano and composition. He has also studied jazz and electronic music at this institution. Besides his formal education, he is mostly self-taught in the fields of improvisation, Turkish music and the two secondary instruments he has picked-up after the piano: the kanun and the accordion.

Up-to-date, he has performed in 28 countries; taken part in many international festivals, appeared in the media, received good critics. He has shared the stage with many masters of Eastern and Western music; he has collaborated with various ensembles, singers, dancers, poets, jugglers, acrobats, actors and actresses. He has done classical and improvised recitals, informative concerts, music for silent films, multi-media and musical-comedy shows.

During the 9 years he lived in the United States, he particularly worked with bands specialising in Middle Eastern, Central Asian and South American music. In 2006 he returned to his homeland and took part in the forming of the bands Tanini, Abra and Toker Trio; he performed with artists such as Yıldız Ibrahimova and Dilek Türkan. In 2011 he gave the first recitals ever in Turkey, on pianos tuned specially for microtonal Turkish music. Starting from 2012, he has interpreted Turkish music through the language of the symphony orchestra with his project Senfonik Fasıl.

He has been given the “Living Values” award in 2013 during the 1st. Mersin Cultural Festival.

Besides giving private lessons, he has taken part in symposiums and given masterclasses in many universities internationally.

He has compositions and arrangements in various genres such as Western classical music, Turkish traditional music and jazz.