Biography

Born in Istanbul in 1983, Turgut Erçetin received his doctorate in composition from Stanford University in 2014, where he later worked as a researcher at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in 2015 with a focus on embodied acoustics and 3D modeling of virtual and physical spaces. Putting this research framework in practice, Erçetin participated in projects at CCRMA, for which he contributed his acoustic measurements of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and worked on a computational model that enabled the research team to simulate its inner acoustics.

Expanding on this scope, most recent research projects have included studies that unpack architectural structures no longer standing — namely the 6th-century Basilica of St. John in Ephesus and the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, as well as modern-day concert spaces such as the WDR-Sendesaal. For more, please see Research.

Awarded with the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD Fellowship in 2016, Erçetin has since expanded on this scope with research projects that unpack architecture no longer standing— namely the 6th-century Basilica of St. John in Ephesus and the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. Following this fellowship, he moved to Germany and has collaborated with the SWR Symphonieorchester, the Arditti Quartet, ELISION Ensemble, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, JACK Quartet, and Ensemble Mosaik, who have also been performing his works at leading New Music festivals, such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, ECLAT Festival, Ultraschall Festival, MärzMusik, Traiettorie, and Manifeste.

A selection of these commissioned works, including the recent large-scale compositional cycle “Das Phonem zwischen zwei Wörtern” premiered by the SWR Symphonieorchester and ELISION Ensemble, will be released by Wergo as Erçetin’s second portrait CD in October 2025 with liner notes written by Paul Griffiths.

These collaborations and the related research have led to publishing Erçetin’s writings in scholarly journals, such as MusikTexte, as well as to giving lectures on his compositional praxis, for example at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe, Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik in Graz, Det Kongelige Danske Musikkonservatorium, Stanford University, Columbia University, and the University of Chicago. For a selection of these publications, please see writings.

Upcoming commissions include a large-scale work written for solo clarinet and large orchestra, There recedes a silence, faceting beyond enclosures, which will be premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage in 2025 by Carl Rosman and the SWR Symphonieorchester; as well as a new work written for solo oboe and string trio to be premiered by Ensemble Musikfabrik.

Erçetin is currently working on a book project that activates architecture, embodied acoustics, and hypergeometry that extends beyond three dimensions, addressing processes that condition embodied happenings and simultaneities therein and unpacking coeval interrelationships of sound, space, and corporeality.