(b. 14 August 1941, İstanbul).

Turkish composer of mostly orchestral and chamber works that have been performed in Europe and elsewhere; he is also active as a musicologist.

Prof. Yürür studied violin at the Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Devlet Konservatuvarı – State Conservatory of the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in İstanbul from 1948–55 and studied viola and violin privately from 1955–61. He then studied literature from France at the Université Paris Sorbonne-Paris IV in 1961–62, where he earned a diploma, and political science at Ankara Üniversitesi in 1962–63. He studied composition with Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Ahmed Adnan Saygun at the Hacettepe Üniversitesi Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı – State Conservatory of Hacettepe University in Ankara from 1962–70 and with Ahmed Adnan Saygun at the Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Devlet Konservatuvarı from 1971–75. He studied composition with John Eaton, Frederick A. Fox and Juan Orrego-Salas, ethnomusicology with Portia K. Maultsby and David White, musicology with Hans Buelow, and music theory with Lewis Rowell and Gary Wittlich at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1978–81. He also studied ethnomusicology with Mantle Hood and Józef Pacholczyk at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from 1981–89, where he earned his PhD, on a grant from the American Research Institute in Turkey.

Among his honours is a term as a guest artist-in-residence of the Senat von Berlin (1997). His music has been performed in Austria, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Syria, Turkey, the UK, and the USA.

As a musicologist, he lectured for the programme Semester at Sea of the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Pittsburgh in 1983, during which time he undertook research in nine countries in Asia. He undertook field research in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in India in 1991, on a grant from the India–Turkey Academic Exchange Programme, and in northern Greece in 2003, on a grant from the American Research Institute in Turkey.

He is also active in other positions. He was a founding member of the Fine Arts Foundation of Turkey in 1992.

He co-founded the Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Devlet Konservatuvarı in 1971, where he served as associate director and chair of its department of composition and taught composition and music theory, all from 1971–78. He later taught at the Hacettepe Üniversitesi Ankara Devlet Konservatuvarı from 1987–91 and served as chair of its department of musicology from 1989–91. He then taught composition, ethnomusicology and musicology at the Mimar Sinan Güzel Sanatlar Üniversitesi Devlet Konservatuvarı from 1991–98 and taught as Professor of Composition and chair of the department of music at Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi – Yıldız Technical University in İstanbul from 1998–2003. He has taught audio design and ethnomusicology at Ege Üniversitesi in İzmir since 2003, where he founded the department of audio design, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and computer composition.

In addition to the works listed below, he has composed film scores and incidental music.

SELECT LIST OF WORKS

STAGE:

The Smile (ballet, scenario by the composer), string quartet, 1977

Gül Baba (opera in 4 acts, libretto by Giovanni Corti), 2000–

ORCHESTRAL:

Theme and Variations, 1969

Ovvertura Concertante, 1979

Concertino, piano, small orchestra (clarinet, French horn, strings), 1982

Concerto, cello, orchestra, 1988

CHAMBER MUSIC:

Etude, clarinet, 1976

Etude, French horn, 1976

Episodo I, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 1977

Orpheus with his Lute, clarinet, cello, 1978

Atys, oboe, viola, 1979

Forest Clearings of Wales, clarinet (+ bass clarinet), percussion/2 percussion, fixed media, 1979

American Suite No. 2, string quartet, 1980

The Pied Piper, flute (+ alto flute), ensemble (guitar [+ electric guitar, mandolin], cello, double bass, harpsichord, percussion), 1990

Gnostic Suite, 5 violas da gamba, 1995

Ma Cumba Suite, alto saxophone, violin, piano, 1997–

CHORAL:

Cantata of Laments (text by A. Kadir), soprano, alto, tenor, bass, mixed chorus, orchestra, 1974

VOCAL:

Our Songs (text by Nâzım Hikmet), soprano, piano, 1976

The Lay of Sheikh Bedreddin (text by Nâzım Hikmet), tenor, piano, 1980

Half-Iron, Half-Naked (text by Rainer Maria Rilke), tenor, trumpet, cello, percussion, 1983

PIANO:

Sonata, 1968

American Suite No. 1, 1978

Fugue, 1981

Twelve Variations on a Chorale, 1981

American Suite No. 3, 1985