Mehmet Okonsar
Encyclopedia
Mehmet Okonsar (born 20 October 1961, Istanbul
) is a Turkish-Belgian (double nationality) pianist, composer, conductor, writer and educator.
(Turkey) and lived in Paris during his first schooling. He started studying piano at the National Conservatory of Ankara, with Nimet Karatekin and Necil Kazim Akses
. Thanks to the rich resources the Ankara Conservatory then possessed and the Médiatheque of the Centre Culturel Français d'Ankara, he grew up studying the music of Pierre Boulez
, Edgar Varėse, Olivier Messiaen
and Pierre Schaeffer
, composers which would have a strong influence on him.
After about a year and half studying at the Ankara Conservatory, the family moved to Belgium where he entered the class of Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music. Vanden Eynden, who ill entirely re-shape the keyboard technique of Okonsar, is a dedicated follower of the style of Eduardo del Pueyo.
The keyboard technique of Eduardo del Pueyo and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, his teachers, is based on the work of Marie Jaëll
, a pupil of Franz Liszt
.
A change of Government in Turkey and the political turbulences of 1977 forced Okonsar family to return to Ankara. Back at the Ankara Conservatory he is put in the class of Gülay Uğurata for the piano and of Nevit Kodalli for musical composition. Okonsar did not attend with any assiduity in either class.
During this period he connected on both friendly and professional basis with the pianist and conductor Selman Ada. From this friendship he learned the basics of the keyboard principles of Pierre Sancan
of whom Selman Ada has been a student.
His first important recital took place in 1979. The program included Préludes by Messiaen and the Pictures of an Exhibition by Mussorgsky
.
Just before the military coup of 1980 the Okonsar family returned to Belgium. He resumed studying with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden. In 1980 Okonsar was rewarded the Premier Prix avec Distinction. His program included the Dante Sonata
by Liszt. His studies continued after the sudden death of his father with a special scholarship and he got the de Piano Avec la plus Grande Distinction, Premier Nommé in 1986 by performing the Piano Concerto Op. 42
by Arnold Schoenberg
.
At the end of his piano studies, Okonsar had the privilege of working with one of the greatest composers of Belgium: Madame Jacqueline Fontyn. He also studied with a pupil of Messiaen, Claude Ballif
. In 1989 he gets his degrees in Composition-Orchestration from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Brussels.
Alexis Weissenberg
, after listening to a recording by Okonsar invited him (on a scholarship) to study in Switzerland.
He endorsed the Belgian citizenship in 1992 but at the same time the President Suleyman Demirel
of Turkey rewarded him with the title "State Artist of the Turkish Republic". Therefore Okonsar will settle in Turkey with his wife Lale Okonsar, painter.
Okonsar works now from Turkey on a busy schedule concertizing, composing, writing and teaching. He owns and manages a CD label exclusive to his own recordings, LMO-Records, and a publishing company "inventor-musicæ."
".
The "Académie des Arts Contemporains" of Enghien, Belgium rewarded him in 1991, for his acoustic and electronic compositions the Gold and Bronze medals respectively.
Mehmet Okonsar performed with the following orchestras: Utah Symphony, Antwerp Philharmonic, Poznan Philharmonic and Lublin Philharmonic. Some of the conductors he played with: Joseph Silverstein
, Charles Dutoit
, Sylvain Cambreling
, Ingo Metzmacher
, Christof Escher.
In recital he appeared at London's Royal Opera House
, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Kyoto, Bruxelles, Anvers, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw
), Rotterdam, Rome, Athens, Calgary, Salt Lake City, Ljubljana.
His noted concerts included the premiere in Turkey of the Concerto for piano by Schoenberg
and his performances of the Concerto for piano by Lutoslawski
in Poland.
He has been a guest judge at the National Piano Competition of Japan under the auspices of the P.T.N.A. (“Piano Teachers National Association”). His researches on music and technology were presented in a lecture at the Yamaha headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan. Okonsar wrote and presented a documentary series on the National Television Broadcast of Turkey, the T.R.T
.
Okonsar is a published writer in several music related periodicals in Turkey. His articles published in Andante the most important Turkish periodical on classical music, were featuring imaginary interviews with "Mephisto" on the subject of the global decadence of the quality of classical music, in Turkey and in the world, a subject often worked on by Okonsar. His other published subjects are mainly about musical composition, analysis, music history. Okonsar publishes also in English and French.
") including among others Orlando Gibbons
and Giles Farnaby
and extends to late 20th. century with the works by Karlheinz Stockhausen
and Witold Lutoslawski
. Notable works in this repertoire are: J.S. Bach "The Art of Fugue
" performed on organ (or piano) and harpsichord; the Goldberg Variations
, the integrale of Well-tempered Keyboard
.
Okonsar has performed recitals featuring the complete piano works by Arnold Schoenberg
, Alban Berg
and Anton Webern
. Despite he refuses all sort of "musical specialization", his repertoire is heavily on the "modern" side with Igor Stravinsky
"Three Movements of Petrouchka" the "Sequenza
" for the piano by Luciano Berio
and the Klavierstücke
by Karlheinz Stockhausen
.
On other labels:
With other artists:
Adept of Free Music philosophy, Okonsar publishes all his recordings and writings as well as his compositions on the Internet under the GNU GPL or Creative Commons licenses.
et Pierre Boulez
.
The compositions by Okonsar were from the beginning exploring unusual ensembles in an avant-garde
line. During the eighties atonal (free) Jazz
specially by Cecil Taylor
and the intricate voicings
by Bill Evans
had strong impact on the total serialism
Okonsar always used. Other extra-serialist influences are Krzysztof Penderecki
, Iannis Xenakis
and György Ligeti
.
The electronic works created in the fifties and early sixties by Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen
, Xenakis, Henri Pousseur
and others created a new and previously unheard approach to orchestration. The sound possibilities of the classical orchestra started to be conceptualized by the composers in terms of "sound envelopes", "sound filters and formants. Okonsar followed a similar path in his orchestrations, in the ninethies.
The music by Okonsar is extremely structuralist
and calls for an analytical approach. Today the composer uses the computer to formulate symbolic and algorithmic music composition principles. Okonsar uses LISP
and Common Music to create a strong structural
base for his compositions and advocates this approach as the condition sine qua non for a strong and coherent work.
This structuralism is presented in the finished score in a very detailed, complex and refined musical écriture.
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
) is a Turkish-Belgian (double nationality) pianist, composer, conductor, writer and educator.
Biography
Mehmet Okonsar was born in IstanbulIstanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
(Turkey) and lived in Paris during his first schooling. He started studying piano at the National Conservatory of Ankara, with Nimet Karatekin and Necil Kazim Akses
Necil Kazim Akses
Necil Kazım Akses was a Turkish classical composer.-Life:Akses studied music and composition in Vienna with Joseph Marx and in Prague with Josef Suk and Alois Hába...
. Thanks to the rich resources the Ankara Conservatory then possessed and the Médiatheque of the Centre Culturel Français d'Ankara, he grew up studying the music of Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Edgar Varėse, Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
and Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henri Marie Schaeffer was a French composer, writer, broadcaster, engineer, musicologist and acoustician of the 20th century. His innovative work in both the sciences —particularly communications and acoustics— and the various arts of music, literature and radio presentation after the end...
, composers which would have a strong influence on him.
After about a year and half studying at the Ankara Conservatory, the family moved to Belgium where he entered the class of Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music. Vanden Eynden, who ill entirely re-shape the keyboard technique of Okonsar, is a dedicated follower of the style of Eduardo del Pueyo.
The keyboard technique of Eduardo del Pueyo and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, his teachers, is based on the work of Marie Jaëll
Marie Jaëll
Marie Jaëll was a French pianist, composer, and music teacher.She was born Marie Trautmann in Steinseltz, Bas-Rhin, and studied under Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck. In 1862 she won first prize at the Paris Conservatory, where she was a student...
, a pupil of Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
.
A change of Government in Turkey and the political turbulences of 1977 forced Okonsar family to return to Ankara. Back at the Ankara Conservatory he is put in the class of Gülay Uğurata for the piano and of Nevit Kodalli for musical composition. Okonsar did not attend with any assiduity in either class.
During this period he connected on both friendly and professional basis with the pianist and conductor Selman Ada. From this friendship he learned the basics of the keyboard principles of Pierre Sancan
Pierre Sancan
Pierre Sancan was a French composer, pianist, teacher and conductor. Along with Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux, he was a major figure among French musicians in the mid-twentieth-century transition between modern and contemporary eras; but outside France his name is almost unknown.Born in...
of whom Selman Ada has been a student.
His first important recital took place in 1979. The program included Préludes by Messiaen and the Pictures of an Exhibition by Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
.
Just before the military coup of 1980 the Okonsar family returned to Belgium. He resumed studying with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden. In 1980 Okonsar was rewarded the Premier Prix avec Distinction. His program included the Dante Sonata
Dante Sonata
Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata is a piano sonata in one movement, completed by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of Années de Pèlerinage...
by Liszt. His studies continued after the sudden death of his father with a special scholarship and he got the de Piano Avec la plus Grande Distinction, Premier Nommé in 1986 by performing the Piano Concerto Op. 42
Piano Concerto (Schoenberg)
Arnold Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, Op. 42 consists of four interconnected movements: Andante , Molto allegro , Adagio , and Giocoso . It features use of the twelve-tone technique and only one tone row, though he does at points take some liberties with the permutation of the row...
by Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
.
At the end of his piano studies, Okonsar had the privilege of working with one of the greatest composers of Belgium: Madame Jacqueline Fontyn. He also studied with a pupil of Messiaen, Claude Ballif
Claude Ballif
Claude Ballif was a French composer.His music is known as a combination of tonality and serialism - a system that he named metatonality....
. In 1989 he gets his degrees in Composition-Orchestration from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Brussels.
Alexis Weissenberg
Alexis Weissenberg
-Early life and career:Born into a Jewish family in Sofia, Weissenberg began taking piano lessons at the age of three from Pancho Vladigerov. He gave his first public performance at the age of eight. After escaping to what was then Palestine in 1945, where he studied under Leo Kestenberg, he went...
, after listening to a recording by Okonsar invited him (on a scholarship) to study in Switzerland.
He endorsed the Belgian citizenship in 1992 but at the same time the President Suleyman Demirel
Süleyman Demirel
Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...
of Turkey rewarded him with the title "State Artist of the Turkish Republic". Therefore Okonsar will settle in Turkey with his wife Lale Okonsar, painter.
Okonsar works now from Turkey on a busy schedule concertizing, composing, writing and teaching. He owns and manages a CD label exclusive to his own recordings, LMO-Records, and a publishing company "inventor-musicæ."
Career
His international career began with the first prize at the International Young Virtuoses Competition of Antwerp in 1982. His orchestral début was the Third Concerto by Rachmaninoff performed at the deSingel Concert Hall in Antwerp. His other prizes are: Paris, 1989, "J. S. Bach" at the Salle Gaveau: second prize; 1990, Rome, Association Chopin "Premio Etruria": first prize; and 1991, United States, Utah, the sixth prize at the "Gina Bachauer International Piano CompetitionGina Bachauer International Piano Competition
The Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and is the second largest piano competition in the United States....
".
The "Académie des Arts Contemporains" of Enghien, Belgium rewarded him in 1991, for his acoustic and electronic compositions the Gold and Bronze medals respectively.
Mehmet Okonsar performed with the following orchestras: Utah Symphony, Antwerp Philharmonic, Poznan Philharmonic and Lublin Philharmonic. Some of the conductors he played with: Joseph Silverstein
Joseph Silverstein
Joseph Silverstein is an American violinist and conductor.As a youth, Silverstein studied with his father, Bernard Silverstein, who was a public school music teacher...
, Charles Dutoit
Charles Dutoit
Charles Édouard Dutoit, is a Swiss conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of French and Russian 20th century music...
, Sylvain Cambreling
Sylvain Cambreling
Sylvain Cambreling is a French conductor. Trained as a trombone player, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire. He joined l'Orchestre Symphonique de Lyon as a trombonist in 1971. In 1974, he took second prize in the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors...
, Ingo Metzmacher
Ingo Metzmacher
Ingo Metzmacher is a German conductor. He is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher. His musical education in piano, music theory and conducting was in Hanover, Salzburg and Cologne...
, Christof Escher.
In recital he appeared at London's Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, in New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Kyoto, Bruxelles, Anvers, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw
Concertgebouw
The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...
), Rotterdam, Rome, Athens, Calgary, Salt Lake City, Ljubljana.
His noted concerts included the premiere in Turkey of the Concerto for piano by Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and his performances of the Concerto for piano by Lutoslawski
Witold Lutoslawski
Witold Lutosławski was one of the major European composers of the 20th century, and one of the preeminent Polish musicians during his last three decades. During his lifetime, Lutosławski earned many international awards and prizes, including the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest...
in Poland.
He has been a guest judge at the National Piano Competition of Japan under the auspices of the P.T.N.A. (“Piano Teachers National Association”). His researches on music and technology were presented in a lecture at the Yamaha headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan. Okonsar wrote and presented a documentary series on the National Television Broadcast of Turkey, the T.R.T
Turkish Radio and Television Corporation
The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, also known as TRT , is the national public broadcaster of Turkey and was founded in 1964. Around 70% of TRT's funding comes from a tax levied on electricity bills and a sales tax on television and radio receivers...
.
Okonsar is a published writer in several music related periodicals in Turkey. His articles published in Andante the most important Turkish periodical on classical music, were featuring imaginary interviews with "Mephisto" on the subject of the global decadence of the quality of classical music, in Turkey and in the world, a subject often worked on by Okonsar. His other published subjects are mainly about musical composition, analysis, music history. Okonsar publishes also in English and French.
Repertoire
His repertoire encompasses a range from the early 17th. century ("The Fitzwilliam Virginal BookFitzwilliam Virginal Book
The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a primary source of keyboard music from the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods in England, i.e., the late Renaissance and very early Baroque. It takes its name from Viscount Fitzwilliam who bequeathed this manuscript collection to Cambridge University in 1816...
") including among others Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons was an English composer, virginalist and organist of the late Tudor and early Jacobean periods...
and Giles Farnaby
Giles Farnaby
Giles Farnaby was an English composer and virginalist of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.-Life:Giles Farnaby was born about 1563, perhaps in Truro, Cornwall, England or near London. His father, Thomas, was a Cittizen and Joyner of London, and Giles may have been related to Thomas Farnaby , the...
and extends to late 20th. century with the works by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and Witold Lutoslawski
Witold Lutoslawski
Witold Lutosławski was one of the major European composers of the 20th century, and one of the preeminent Polish musicians during his last three decades. During his lifetime, Lutosławski earned many international awards and prizes, including the Order of the White Eagle, Poland's highest...
. Notable works in this repertoire are: J.S. Bach "The Art of Fugue
The Art of Fugue
The Art of Fugue , BWV 1080, is an incomplete work by Johann Sebastian Bach . It was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier. The first known surviving version, which contained 12 fugues and 2 canons, was copied by the composer in 1745...
" performed on organ (or piano) and harpsichord; the Goldberg Variations
Goldberg Variations
The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
, the integrale of Well-tempered Keyboard
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
.
Okonsar has performed recitals featuring the complete piano works by Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
and Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
. Despite he refuses all sort of "musical specialization", his repertoire is heavily on the "modern" side with Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
"Three Movements of Petrouchka" the "Sequenza
Sequenza IV
Sequenza IV for solo piano is the fourth in a series of solo works by Luciano Berio that started with the publication of Sequenza I for solo flute ....
" for the piano by Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
and the Klavierstücke
Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)
The Klavierstücke constitute a series of nineteen compositions by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.Stockhausen has said the Klavierstücke "are my drawings"...
by Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
.
Discography
Solo on his own label "LMO-Records"- "Liszt-Modern": "Modern" pieces by Franz Liszt, including Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-HFantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-HFantasie und Fuge über das Thema B-A-C-H Fantasie und Fuge über das Thema B-A-C-H (also in the first version known as Präludium und Fuge über das Motiv B-A-C-H, title in English: Fantasy and Fugue on the Theme B-A-C-H) Fantasie und Fuge über das Thema B-A-C-H (also in the first version known as...
, the Bagatelle sans tonalitéBagatelle sans tonalitéBagatelle sans tonalité is a piece for solo piano written by Franz Liszt in 1885. The manuscript bears the title "Fourth Mephisto Waltz" and may have been intended to replace the piece now known as the Fourth Mephisto Waltz when it appeared Liszt would not be able to finish it; the phrase...
, etc. - J.S.BACH: Goldberg VariationsGoldberg VariationsThe Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a work for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, the work is considered to be one of the most important examples of variation form...
(piano) - J.S.BACH: The Well-Tempered KeyboardThe Well-Tempered ClavierThe Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...
(piano) (integrale, 48 preludes and fugues in 3 CD) - J.S.BACH: The Art of FugueThe Art of FugueThe Art of Fugue , BWV 1080, is an incomplete work by Johann Sebastian Bach . It was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier. The first known surviving version, which contained 12 fugues and 2 canons, was copied by the composer in 1745...
(on organ and harpsichord) - J.S.BACH: The Musical OfferingThe Musical OfferingThe Musical Offering , BWV 1079, is a collection of canons and fugues and other pieces of music by Johann Sebastian Bach, all based on a single musical theme given to him by Frederick II of Prussia , to whom they are dedicated...
(on electronic instruments) - "Shadowy Arcade" free improvisations on solo piano
On other labels:
- "Live at Salt Lake City": Recital, recorded live (1991)
- "TANGO, Best tangos by A. Piazzolla": personal arrangements for piano solo
- "Mehmet Okonsar Plays Gershwin" Complete works for the solo piano by Georges Gershwin and a personal transcription of the Rhapsody in BlueRhapsody in BlueRhapsody in Blue is a musical composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and jazz band written in 1924, which combines elements of classical music with jazz-influenced effects....
With other artists:
- "T.R.T.Turkish Radio and Television CorporationThe Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, also known as TRT , is the national public broadcaster of Turkey and was founded in 1964. Around 70% of TRT's funding comes from a tax levied on electricity bills and a sales tax on television and radio receivers...
Youth Choirs 20. Anniversary": Commissioned work by the T.R.T. (Turkish National Radio and Television) for a capella choir; - "T.R.T.Turkish Radio and Television CorporationThe Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, also known as TRT , is the national public broadcaster of Turkey and was founded in 1964. Around 70% of TRT's funding comes from a tax levied on electricity bills and a sales tax on television and radio receivers...
Chamber Orchestra": J.S. Bach, concertos for keyboard in F min. and G min.
Adept of Free Music philosophy, Okonsar publishes all his recordings and writings as well as his compositions on the Internet under the GNU GPL or Creative Commons licenses.
Composer
Mehmet Okonsar started composing at the age of 11. His role-models were Arnold SchoenbergArnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
et Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
.
The compositions by Okonsar were from the beginning exploring unusual ensembles in an avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
line. During the eighties atonal (free) Jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
specially by Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
and the intricate voicings
Voicings
Voicings was the last recording by the Minneapolis jazz vocal group Rio Nido. The album was one of the early recordings to feature live "direct to digital" recording techniques.-Track listing:# "Northern Lights"...
by Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
had strong impact on the total serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
Okonsar always used. Other extra-serialist influences are Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
, Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
and György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
.
The electronic works created in the fifties and early sixties by Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, Xenakis, Henri Pousseur
Henri Pousseur
Henri Pousseur was a Belgian composer.-Biography:Pousseur studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 1947 to 1953. He was closely associated with Pierre Froidebise and André Souris...
and others created a new and previously unheard approach to orchestration. The sound possibilities of the classical orchestra started to be conceptualized by the composers in terms of "sound envelopes", "sound filters and formants. Okonsar followed a similar path in his orchestrations, in the ninethies.
The music by Okonsar is extremely structuralist
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
and calls for an analytical approach. Today the composer uses the computer to formulate symbolic and algorithmic music composition principles. Okonsar uses LISP
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. Stereotypically, people with a lisp are unable to pronounce sibilants , and replace them with interdentals , though there are actually several kinds of lisp...
and Common Music to create a strong structural
Structuralism
Structuralism originated in the structural linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and the subsequent Prague and Moscow schools of linguistics. Just as structural linguistics was facing serious challenges from the likes of Noam Chomsky and thus fading in importance in linguistics, structuralism...
base for his compositions and advocates this approach as the condition sine qua non for a strong and coherent work.
This structuralism is presented in the finished score in a very detailed, complex and refined musical écriture.
Compositions
- "Shir Ha Shirim" שיר השירים For soprano and grand orchestra (2010).
- "Tehillim" תהלים For solo vocal (male or female) and small orchestra (2010).
- "Kaleidoscopes" (2006–2009)
- N1. for Piano Première by the composer in Ankara
- N2. for Strings Chamber Orchestra, Marimba and Piano. Première conducted by Hakan Sensoy in Istanbul
- N3. for Viola and Piano. Première by Çetin Aydar (viola) and the compositer in Ankara
- "Percussion X" (2005) For three percussionists. Première in Ankara by he Trio SaNeNa.
- "Temples of Kyoto" (2004–2010) Three pieces for the piano,
- N1. "Kinkaku-jiKinkaku-ji, also known as , is a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan. The garden complex is an excellent example of Muromachi period garden design. It is designated as a National Special Historic Site and a National Special Landscape, and it is one of 17 locations comprising the Historic Monuments of Ancient...
" 金閣寺, The Temple of the Golden Pavillon, Première by the compositer in Tokyo (dedicated to the memory of Mrs. Yasuko Fukuda) - N2. "Tetsugaku no MichiPhilosopher's WalkThe is a pedestrian path that follows a cherry-tree-lined canal in Kyoto, between Ginkaku-ji and Nanzen-ji. The route is so-named because the influential 20th century Japanese philosopher and Kyoto University professor Nishida Kitaro is thought to have used it for daily meditation. It passes a...
", Philosopher's Walk 哲学の道 (dedicated to Reiko and Masatsugu Sasaki) - N3. "Ginkaku-jiGinkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Silver Pavilion," is a Zen temple in the Sakyo ward of Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the construction that represents the Higashiyama Culture of Muromachi period....
" 銀閣寺, The Temple of the Silver Pavillon- "Two Seascapes" (2000) for mixte choir a-capella. Première conducted by Prof. Mustafa Apaydın, Ankara.
- "Rhythm Studies pour Piano Solo" series 2 (2000)
- "Rhythm Studies pour Piano Solo" series 1 (1999), inspired by the "Schillinger System of Musical Composition"
- "Oannés" & "Mr. Dunne" (1990) Two sketches for improvisation for one or several piano(s). Première by the compositer in Brussels.
- "Unknown" (1989) for Bass Clarinet and Percussion. Première in Brussels.
- "Mandel Fractal Studies" (1997) Five pieces for the Piano based on fractals.
- "Emulation" (1989) Five Pieces for the Piano. Première by the compositer in Istanbul.
- "Chameleon" (1987) Three Pieces for the Piano. Première by the compositer in Brussels.