Bio

         Babür Tongur 

*        1955, Ankara;

*        ''Müzik ailemde etkin olarak yaşanıyordu, babam birkaç geleneksel çalgı çalıyordu, annem şarkı söylüyordu. Çalgı çalan ve şarkı söyleyen aile dostlarıyla düzenli müzikli toplantıları yapılıyordu evde. Arka bahçenin ardından hafta sonlarında iki kez geçen bando çok ilgi çekiciydi. Bu ortamın içinde müziğe ve çalgılara bağlandım.''


*       ''1959’da babam İstanbul’da konservatuvarda çalışmaya başladı. Rana Erksan’dan piyano ve solfej dersi almaya başladım.''

*        1961’de ilk besteler.   


*       Violin, piano and solfeggio with Ekrem Zeki Ün, Rana Erksan and Şive Ölmez, 1962-1966, Istanbul Municipal Conservatory;   

*       Full time boarding junior high school solfeggio, music theory, violin and piano with Mustafa Toroslu, Ferdi Statzer, Ekrem Zeki Ün and Hülya Saydam, 1966-1971, Istanbul Municipal Conservatory;

*       Full time boarding high school harmony, counterpoint, violin, piano with Muammer Sun, Erçivcan Saydam, Jules Higney, Marie Claire Higney, Gulsin Reusch and Nimet Karatekin 1971-1975 and University 1 1976, Ankara State Conservatory;

*       Undergraduate Degree, Composition and Conducting 1976 (ASC) with Ercivan Saydam, 1978-1981(MSFU) with Adnan SaygunMimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory;

*       Master Degree, Composition and Modal Music with Adnan Saygun, 1981-1983, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University;

*       Dr (DMA) Degree, Composition and Ethnomusicology with Adnan Saygun, 1983-1987, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.


Composition & Currently & Recently

Anatolia Twenty Thirty to Thousand Years Ago Trio, 2023, Piano, Violin, Violoncello, 1st mouvement In the Archaic City Premier 2023 Calgary, Land’s End Ensemble June 23.


"Deli Dumrul's Premiere is tomorrow night -August 12, 2014- in Katowice - Poland. I had composed this play many years ago in collaboration with genius theater director Yucel Erten. It has been performed in many centers around the word since 1990."

Babur Tongur co-founded Tongur Music in 2014 in Calgary. Tongur Music works in Music Education, Publishing and Organisation areas. He completed "Elegy" for piano, violin and cello in December 2013. He has been composing at Calgary/ Alberta since 2012. He had composed some orchestral and chambre music compositions in Winnipeg-Manitoba between 2009 and 2012. He completed "Birdus Petroleum" from Quintet II, "Birdus Petroleum" was performed by Akropolis Reed Quintet in Michigan in 8 January 2012. New Released CD in December 2011: Variations on Two Anonymous Folk Songs, Afyon and Aysem; Selva Erdener (Soprano) and Ibrahim Yazici (Piano). Akropolis Reed Quintet from Michigan USA won "Grand Prize" at "Plowman Chamber Music Competition" in April 2011; They played "An Old Love Song" and "About Life" from "Nuclear Child Games" in their 30 minutes final program. He completed "Cello Concerto" in July 2010, "Guitar Concerto", "Sonata for solo Oboe I and II" in March 2011 at Winnipeg. "Nuclear Child Games" recorded by Akropolis Reed Quintet at Michigan USA in February 2011. "Deli Dumrul" continues to be performed at State Theatre of Trabzon with Babur Tongur's music since 2008. Two Folk Song recorded by Selva Erdener and Ibrahim Yazici at Ankara in December 2010. Sonata Clarinetto played by Elif Aksoy and Gulum Surmen at Istanbul and Ankara in 2009 and 2010. In 2006, he settled to an Aegean cost town for three years created and organized Bodrum Filarmoni Project.

Music Director&Conductor & Instructor

He conducted MSGSU State Conservatoire Orchestra between 2000 and 2006. He conducted operas, concertos, new music repertoire along with wide classical and romantic orchestra repertoire during these years. 

He co-founded The Istanbul Theater Orchestra in 1978. The Istanbul Theater Orchestra staged in many musicals through thirty years. Also he worked as a music director and composer at the Istanbul and Ankara State Theaters and Kenter Theater until 2008. He conducted 'Three Penny Opera' and 'West Side Story' first time in Turkey with this orchestra. 

He taught composition, orchestra, orchestration, modal music, counterpoint, partimenti (figured bass /bass chiffre), harmony, music theory, musical analysis and sight singing /solfege/ Formation Musicale at the State Conservatory MSGSU from 1979 to 2007. He also was assigned as associate dean from 1994 to 1996, in the same university.

Education

He was accepted to Istanbul Conservatory's elementary schools as a piano student in the age of six, 1961. He started to compose his first piano pieces. Later, in junior high years, he continued to the same school as a boarding school student. Here, he studied violin with Prof. Ekrem Zeki Un and piano with Prof. Hulya Saydam. At the age of sixteen, he was accepted to composition division at Ankara State Conservatory, which was again a boarding high school. Here,  between 1970-1976, he studied composition, harmony and counterpoint under Muammer Sun and Ercivan Saydam, piano with Marie Claire Higny and Nimet Karatekin and violin with Jules Higny. Between 1976-1978 he studied partimenti, piano, advance harmony, analysis and music history in some private courses, lessons, seminars and classes.

After 1978, he continued his education in composition with A. Adnan Saygun* at the Istanbul State Conservatory in Mimar Sinan Fine Art University. In this university he completed composition undergraduate in 1981, Master's in composition  in 1983 and DMA in 1987.

He also studied ethnomusicology with A. Adnan Saygun and ethnology with Afsar Timucin at the MSGSU State Conservatory in the PhD programs from 1983 to 1987. He completed The Ethnomusicology Program in 1985 Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. He also organized and conducted field trips and collected many folk musics. Afterwards he made transcriptions of these compilations by using methods of Saygun and Bartok. He presented papers in congress.

Congress:
-In 1984, International Modal Music Congress/Istanbul, "The Origins of Universality in the Music" ;
-In 1986, Turkish Music symposium/Istanbul, "Itri";
-In 2002, ECUME International Modal Music Congress/Tunis, "Classification of the Modes According to Function of the Mese Pitch"

Awards

-1985 State Conservatory Composition Award / Sonata for Viola-Piano;
-1987 Dilligil theatre Music Award / Macbeth of the Witches (Theatre Music);
-1988 Enka Award/Nine ile Karga /Grand-granma and the Crow-(Soloists, Choire, Orchestra/Piano)

Lineage

A. Adnan Saygun; Schola Cantorum de Paris, Vincent d'Indy, Cesar Franck.
Erçivan Saydam;  École Normale de Musique de Paris. Henry Challan, Marcell Bitsch, Jean Gallon, Noel Gallon. Georges Dandelot, Marcel Dupré.

Diplomas

DMA., Composition, 1987, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul.
MA., Composition, 1983, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul.
UND. GR., Composition, 1981, State Conservatory, Istanbul.

Teachers - Classes (1961-1987):
A. Adnan Saygun, composition, analysis. Ilhan Usmanbas, contemporary music. Ilhan Usmanbas, music history, analysis, notation. Ercivan Saydam, harmony, counterpoint. Ferdi Friedrich Von Statzer, partimenti / bass chiffree, analysis-composition. A. Adnan Saygun, fugue, counterpoint, harmony, partimenti / bass chiffree. Gultekin Oransay, music history. Afsar Timucin, philosophy, ethnology, aesthetic. A. Adnan Saygun, ethnomusicology, modal music. Ekrem Zeki Un, violin. Marie Claire Higny, piano. Gulsin Onay, piano. Muammer Sun, harmony, composition, Nimet Karatekin, piano. Ayhan Turan, violin. Meral Sekerkaran, music history. Sive Olmez, Mustafa Toroslu, theory, solfeggio. Jules Higny, violin. Sait Tayla, psychology, pedagogy.

Seminar - Workshope - Class (1973-2011):
Finale, computer software (sem), Siegfried Fink, percussion composition / instrumentation (class, sem). Samuel Adler, orchestration (class, sem); Aaron Copland, orchestral composition (sem). Olivier Messiaen,analyse (class, sem); Marie Claire Beltrando Patier, music history (class, sem); Niyazi Tagizade, Robert Wagner, conducting (class). Pierre Boulez (class, sem), Yvonne Gervais-Lorriot, partimenti (figured bass /bass chiffre) (class); Luciano Berio, composition (sem); John Cage, composition (sem); Louis Aragon, sonnets (sem); Marcelle Duchesne-Guillemine, Dechiffrement de la Musique Babylonienne (sem), Joseph Beuys (sem.), Bulent Arel, electro acoustic (class, sem).