Kamran Ince

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Kamran N. İnce is a Turkish-American composer born on May 6, 1960. He has won many important awards, including the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize. His music has been performed by major orchestras and ensembles around the world, and his recordings are on labels such as Naxos, EMI, Albany, and Archer. He is regarded as a leading figure in contemporary music. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee, and teaches at the University of Memphis and Istanbul Technical University.

He was born in Glendive, Montana, and moved to Turkey as a child. He began studying cello, piano, and composition at age 10 at the Ankara State Conservatory. He later studied at İzmir University with Muammer Sun before returning to the United States in 1978. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Oberlin College in 1982 and completed his master’s and doctoral degrees at the Eastman School of Music in 1984 and 1987. His teachers included David Burge, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Samuel Adler, and Barbara Kolb.

In 1990 he was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan. In 1992 he joined the University of Memphis faculty, where he teaches composition and co-directs the Imagine New Music Festival. He helped found the Center for Advanced Studies in Music at Istanbul Technical University in 1999. His music is often described as post-minimalist, blending near repetition, a mostly tonal language, and influences from world music. A notable work is Concerto for Orchestra, Turkish Instruments and Voices, which combines a Turkish ensemble with Western instruments. He writes large-scale works for orchestra and ensemble, as well as smaller pieces for solo instruments.

His music has been performed by major orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has collaborated with renowned musicians and his recordings appear on Naxos, EMI, Albany, and Archer. He also travels to present his music at events like Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and the Istanbul International Music Festival.