Baturay Yarkın Trio Feat. Nağme Yarkın

Baturay Yarkın (1991) was born into a family full of musicians for generations. He resides in Istanbul, the historical and cultural center of various civilizations. At the age of 7, he won first place in the part-time program of Istanbul University State Conservatory Classical Piano Department. At the age of 12, she studied with Prof. Meral Yapalı and placed 3rd in the European Young Pianists Competition. She studied classical music, jazz, Argentine tango, Turkish music and composition until graduation at the doctoral level.
During her high school years, she joined the Yarkın Turkish Rhythm Group and took part in national and international events. The group performed with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture at an event organized for the Turkish-Chinese Year in China in 2013. In 2011, he gave a special concert at Hagia Irini as part of Ara Dinkjian and Friends. At that time, he improved his playing skills with musicians playing fretless instruments. His passion for tango and jazz led him to the Rotterdam Conservatory, Codarts, where he expanded his knowledge of world and jazz music and collaborated with international musicians for the first time. He participated in tango workshops with world-class musicians such as Color Tango, Los Reyes del Tango and Gustavo Beytelmann. She contributed to Şevval Sam’s 2013 album Tango. He played Argentine tango songs in various concert halls in the Netherlands with OTRA, compiled by Leo Vervelde. He played in the New Year Concert from Louis Armstrong to Astor Piazzolla at CRR Concert Hall. Tangueros de Estambul is the first album of TangEsta, founded by bandoneon player Ortaç Aydınoğlu. The band has performed in various cities in Turkey, at the prestigious 15th tanGO TO Istanbul in Turkey, at the Grand Night Tango in Almaty/Kazakhstan and at the Sonido Tango Festival in Argentina as the first tango orchestra from Turkey to perform there. After being accepted to Istanbul BAU Jazz Institute with a scholarship, he played as a young jazz artist with his quartet at Istanbul Jazz Festival in 2014. In the following years, she attended Chick Corea, Pulawy Jazz, New York Jazz, Eric Alexander, Greg Ozby and Barry Harris workshops. He represented Codarts at the Pop and Jazz Platform 2016 Rotterdam organized by the Association of European Conservatories (AEC). He has performed at important festival stages such as Akbank Jazz Festival, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Borusan Music House, CRR, İş Sanat, Salon İKSV, CSO Ada Ankara and worked with Turkey’s leading jazz musicians. For the 26th Istanbul Jazz Festival, the artist’s hands were molded during the creation process of the sculptures with the slogan Hands Touching Jazz. In 2017, the artist attended Silk Road’s Global Musician Workshop, founded by Yo YoMa, with a scholarship and worked with world-renowned musicians. In 2017 and 2018, he gave special concerts in Milan as Silk Road Global Musician Europe Ambassador. In 2018, he was invited to the USA by Silk Road’s GMW to perform as Yarkın Duo and give workshops. Deciding to work together with her sister Nağme Yarkın, Yarkın Duo was founded in 2016 and their debut album One was released in 2017. The musicians interpret their compositions and arrangements based on their different backgrounds with important cultural backgrounds. They have played together on many continents, interpreting their repertoire of Argentine tangos, Turkish folk music, their own compositions and improvisations. The duo performed at the 1st TURfest Festival in Croatia, followed by a special concert at the 17th Boston Turkish Film Festival and the Turkish Music Workshop at Berklee College of Music as part of the festival. They performed the opening concert of the 1st Turquazz Anatolian Jazz and Roots Festival in London, England. The duo gave a live interview on the Albanian National TV Channel [1], took part in the 10th Jazz in Albania Festival in Tirana and the 33rd Akbank Jazz Festival. Together with Baturay Yarkın Trio & Nağme Yarkın, he gave 15 concerts at 15 universities in various cities of Turkey as part of the Colors of Anatolia project, which brings jazz and Turkish music together, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey. Drawing attention to the importance of multicultural communication, the group performed at the 29th Istanbul Jazz Festival and jazz festivals in Monaco, France, Montenegro and the Netherlands. The group took part in the 2018-19 Borusan Music House concert program. 8 of his solo albums are available in music markets and digital platforms. Since 2018, he has been teaching jazz piano, theory and history as a PhD lecturer at Istanbul University State Conservatory Jazz Department.