User:Royalish/Cihat Aşkın

Ali Cihat Aşkın (b. 1968, İstanbul), is a Turkish violinist, composer and academician.

Life
Born in Istanbul, 1968, as one of the children of a child. Aşkın's father is Hafiz Imam Sami Aşkın, and his mother is Remziye Hanım. No one in his family did, but Askin wanted to compose his first compositions without learning the notes, with the mandolin that he owned at the Dikilitaş Primary School in Beşiktaş. He was only 8 years old when he composed a poem by Ziya Osman Saba. He started to take his first music lessons from Mesut Dur, whom he admired to train violin in a society in Beşiktaş. His father, Sami Aşkın, gave his time to his child's support for music.

He entered Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory at the age of 11. He started violin lessons with Professor Ayhan Turan in the Specially Talented Children's Class at the Conservatory. Professor Turan taught himself to play the violin.

Cihat Aşkın gave his first recital in school one year later. Askin, who played all of Paganini's caprices before he was fifteen. He gave his first orchestral concert at the age of 16, playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. He graduated from school in 1989.

Later, he went to London and studied with Professor Rodney Friend at the Royal College of Music and received a soloist diploma. Immediately afterwards, at the City University of London he continued his studies with Prof. Yfrah Neaman. He completed his master's degree in 1993, completed his doctorate in 1996 and received the title of Doctor of Music, in 1998 he became an associate professor

Cihat Aşkın, who received awards in many international competitions in the 1990s, gave concerts with all the orchestras of the country, especially the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and gave recitals for the public in almost all regions from Edirne to Van. Aşkın performed the first performance of Yalçın Tura's concerto dedicated to him in 1995.

In 1998, in honour of the 75th anniversary of the Republic, he made an effort to research, archive, vocalize and record the works written by all Turkish composers for violin until today. About 70 composers identified about 140 works (the number of works increased later). He recorded some of the works himself.

Among the other recordings made by Aşkın are Mozart's Violin Concerto No.5 (1991) and Bach's Concerto for Two Violins (1998) with conductor Hikmet Şimşek, accompanied by Hungarian Virtuosos. His CD containing works by Kodaly, Gliere, Halvorsen, Honnegger and Aquiar for violin and cello was released in London in 1996 by the Meridian Company. The artist's CDs titled Miniatures from Kalan Müzik, Ege'nin Türküsü and Hopeless were released. Miniatures became the album with the highest sales achieved by a 'classical musician' in Turkey so far.

Cihat Aşkın carries out an educational project that he describes as "Turkey's most idealistic violin education project". Within the framework of this project, he founded a group called Cihat Aşkın and his Little Friends (CAKA), which consists of children aged 8-17 who are studying music. It aims to train 1600 violinists in 10 years by raising 20 children per year from each city.

Awards

 * 1984 Istanbul Technical University Achievement Award
 * 1985 Istanbul Philharmonic Association Award
 * 1987 Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition "Best Bartok Performer"
 * 1990 Percy Coates (London)
 * 1990 Leonard Hirsch Award (London)
 * 1990 Isolde Menges Award
 * 1990 Kathleen Long Chamber Music Award
 * 1990 Carl Flesch Violin Competition "Outstanding Merit" Award
 * 1991 Isolde Menges Award (2nd time) (2. defa)
 * 2002 "Foyer des Artistes" (Rome)
 * 2010 Andante Magazine Classical Music Awards, 2009 Best Strings Performer Award