Baturay Yarkin
Biography Baturay Yarkin
Baturay Yarkın
was born in 1991 in a family full of generations of musicians. When he was 6, he was accepted to Istanbul University Department of Piano part time program. When he was 13, he trained with his teacher Meral Yapalı for European Young Pianists Competition and he came in 3rd place.
Baturay Yarkın has combined jazz music, which is world-renowned music genre, with Anatolian music without allowing any cultural degeneration in his project, The Colors of Anatolia; in that direction, he has arranged Anatolian song forms for his jazz trio and Nağme Yarkın’s İstanbul Kemençe (Classical Kemençe).
Turkey has an important place when it is concerned that music is based on improvisation. Especially gazels, call and response duets, unmetered folk songs, taksims have major roles in Turkish Folk Music; the Western Music Genres call and use the term improvisation and it is one of the most important factors in jazz music. The main aim of the project is to bring awareness to the realities of different musical genres using common musical element (improvisation) and to be able to transfer the idea to audience.
The rich melodic and rhythmic sources of Turkish Classical Music and Baturay Yarkın’s compositions and arrangements are essential factors for the group which intends to be peculiar. The band, which pointed the importance of multicultural communication performing in 21. İstanbul Jazz Festival, The Netherlands, Croatia, Italy and U.S.A. continues to perform in Turkey and on abroad. The band completed its national tour in 15 universities, which happened in 12 different cities in 2017 with the support of Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
Baturay Yarkın joined the jazz workshops given by Barry Harris, Greg Osby, Eric Alexander, New York Jazz Workshop and Pulawy Jazz Workshop in 2014-2015. He represented Codarts at the “Pop and Jazz Platform” organized by Association Européenne des Conservatoires on February, 2016.
The first trio album Su, which consists of Baturay Yarkın’s compositions and guest international artists and One, the first album of Yarkın Duo, are available on music markets. The Colors of Anatolia will be available toward the end of the year.
