özkan umutcan bapbacı – composer

Özkan Umutcan Bapbacı (b. 1996, Tekirdag, Türkiye) Composer, Sound Designer, Conductor and Engineer.

Upon graduating from the Middle East Technical University with a degree in Industrial Engineering, he pursued Composition studies at Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, studying composition with renowned composers and scholars Onur Türkmen and Tolga Yayalar, music theory and counterpoint with Yigit Aydın, and conducting with Isın Metin.

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In 2022, he worked as an orchestra intern, supported by the Erasmus+ program at the Berlin Opera Academy during the OpernFest, with conductors Peter Leonard, Matthew Toogood, Lutz de Veer, and Carlos Sperier on administrative and artistic duties of the festival, bringing important repertoire operas such as Die Zauberflöte, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi on stage in Berlin.

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He has participated in composition masterclasses led by renowned composers such as Beat Furrer, Chaya Czernowing, Pierre Jodlowski, Magnus Lindberg, Karlheinz Essl, Clara Iannotta, Franck Bedrossian, Isabel Mundry, Malin Bång and Klaus Lang at new music festivals such as impuls Festival, Darmstädter Ferienkurse and MIXTUR in Germany, Austria, and Spain.

His music was premiered by performers such as Nina Janssen-Deinzer and Peyee Chen duo, Reverberation Percussion, Krassimir Sterev, Trio Accanto, and members of the Ensemble Musikfabrik, Benjamin Kobler, Dirk Rothbrust, and Dirk Wietheger.  The composer is chosen for the SWR Symphony Orchestra’s Meisterkurs Orchesterkomposition with his orchestral piece Dämmernacht, which is scheduled for its premiere in May 2025 by SWR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Lin Liao.

Currently, the composer is focused on creating drama-driven musical expressions through theatricality and dramaturgy as well as acoustic and electronic elements, multimedia materials, and sound spatialization techniques. Upon graduating from Bilkent University summa cum laude, he is accepted for Master’s of Composition degree under the guidance of Sarah Nemtsov at Mozarteum University Salzburg.