Emre Aracñ (born 22 December 1968) is a Turkish music historian, conductor, and composer.
Aracñ was born in Ankara, Turkey and moved to the United Kingdom in 1987.
He studied music at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Music with honours followed by a PhD in 1999. The subject of his thesis was the life and works of Ahmet Adnan Saygun. During his years in Edinburgh, Aracñ founded the Edinburgh University String Orchestra. In 2000, the orchestra established the Emre Aracñ Composition Prize, which is annually awarded to student composers.
With funding from the Türk Ekonomi Bankasñ, between 1999 and 2002 Aracñ was a research associate at the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies, University of Cambridge, studying European music in the Ottoman Empire. In 1999, he founded a string orchestra called the London Academy of Ottoman Court Music which performed his orchestrations of compositions by Italian musicians resident at the Turkish court in the 19th century, as well as original works by Ottoman sultans in the popular dance forms of the period. The ensemble which was in existence between 1999 and 2003 and performed in London at venues including St James's Church, Piccadilly and St John's Smith Square. They held a concert in the Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge in 2000. Warner Classics released an album featuring a selection of these compositions recorded by the ensemble in 2002, under the title Invitation to the Seraglio. In Turkey, the same material was pre-released by Kalan Müzik on two CDs; European Music at the Ottoman Court and War and Peace: Crimea 1853-56.
His research focuses primarily on European musical practice in the Ottoman court. Based in the United Kingdom, he conducts research on Turco-European historical music under the patronage of the ÃÂarmñklñ family and Nurol Holding. Aracñ wrote the first comprehensive biography of Giuseppe Donizetti which was published in Turkish in 2006. He also conducted a commemorative concert in Bergamo at the Teatro Donizetti on 4 December 2007.
Aracñ is a public speaker on Turkish-European musical exchange, having lectured at venues including New York University, the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Sarajevo and Vienna. He also acts as a cultural ambassador, with lecture tours organised by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and hosted by various Turkish embassies, from Ottawa to Islamabad. He contributes to Turkish and English journals including Andante, The Court Historian, International Piano, The Musical Times and Cornucopia.
The album Bosphorus by Moonlight, which features his violin concerto bearing the same title, was recorded in the Rudolfinum by the Prague Symphony Orchestra with Turkish violinist Cihat Aà Âkñn. The same album also includes miniature musical portraits of the Ottoman Imperial family by Callisto Guatelli, a director of the Istanbul palace orchestra.
Istanbul to London, Aracñ's fourth album released by Kalan Müzik, was also recorded in the Rudolfinum with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir and features two choral hymns, one by Angelo Mariani and the other by Luigi Arditi. Euro-Ottomania is the title of Brilliant Classics's global release, including the choral numbers as well as August Ritter von Adelburg's Aux Bords du Bosphore.
As well as taking part in the Izmir and Istanbul International Music Festivals, Aracñ has also worked with various Turkish orchestras including the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Antalya Opera and the Borusan and Istanbul Chamber Orchestras. He gave a performance with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta in the presence of Beatrix of the Netherlands in December 2006, as well as in May 2008 with Alexander Rudin's Musica Viva in Moscow. He has also performed in Latvia and Estonia, the latter being in Kadriorg Palace, as well as in Hagia Irene in Istanbul with the Naval Forces Band and the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra on 20 October 2008.
Voice and Orchestra
Orchestra
Solo Instrument and Orchestra
Voice and Piano
Solo Piano