EVİN
İLYASOĞLU
Born in Istanbul, she started the piano at seven with Marie Çobangil.
She continued her music studies at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory
(1957-1963) with Ozen Veziroglu, under the supervision of the famed tudor Ferdi Statzer. She graduated
from the American College for Girls (Robert College) in 1966. Her literary and
musical activities went side by side. She attended the Comparative History of
Music seminars at the Michigan State University, U.S.A.(1969-1971).
She produced and presented Classical Western Music programmes on Radio
Istanbul for some twenty years starting in 1973. She was also the producer and
presenter of a number of TV series.
She won the first prize in Yeni
Dergi contest of Criticism in 1968 with her essay on Nazım Hikmet’s poem, The Song of the Weeping Willow. She won
the Turkish Language Society’s Radio and TV Language Prize (1978). Her book, Music Over Time with 10 CDs, was
commisioned to her by the Yapı Kredi Bank, for its fifttieh anniversary and it
made 10 editons selling more than 40.000 copies. She was the curator of the Istanbul Music Exhibiton within the
Habitat II conference in 1997. Her reviews, essays and interviews have been
published in numerous magazines (including Gramophone), newspapers and encyclopedias
since 1980. Her novel Theodora’s Enemies
is translated into Greek and released by the Livanis Publishers of Athens
(2007). She is honored by the “Médallie D’honneur” of “Société d’Encouragement
au Progrés” of Paris in 2013. She is decorated with the “Bene Merito Honorary
Medal” of Polish Governmnet in 2014, Middle East Technical University’s Appreciation Award and Honor Award of Istanbul Music Festival (2017).
Currently she is a lecturer at the Boğaziçi University and the organizer
of the weekly classical music concerts of Albert Long Hall. She is a columnist
in classical music of the Cumhuriyet
Daily since 1991. She has written over 20 books where all of them about
general history of music and modern Turkish music excepting one novel. She is
the mother of Ekin İlyasoğlu Muslu. She was the wife of late Prof.Dr.Eyüp
İlyasoğlu, who passed away in 2013.
Books:
Twentyfive Turkish
Composers (In English)-(Pan Publishers,1989)
On the Wings of
Music-Interviews (Pan Publishers, 1992)
Gift to İlhan Usmanbaş (Sevda Cenap And
Foundation Publications, 1994)
Music Over Time (A history of Western Music)–includes a 10 CD
set (Yapı Kredi Publishers, 1994, seventh edition 2004)
Cemal Reşit Rey “Journeys
in a Musical World” –includes a 2-CD set (Yapı Kredi Publications,
1997)
Composers from Galatasaray- includes one CD
(İyi Şeyler /Müzikotek, 1997)
Necil Kazım Akses “A
journey from the Miniature to the Epic” –includes a 2-CD
set (Yapı Kredi Publications, 1998)
Zehra’s Story –Remembrance of
soprano Zehra Yıldız-includes one CD-(Boyut Publishers, 1998)
Contemporary Turkish
Composers (In English) (Pan Publishers,
1998)
İlhan Usmanbaş-“Those were
the Immortal Seastones” –includes a 2-CD set (Yapı Kredi Publications,
2000)
Shall we listen to Ayla? –A biographical
novel of violonist Ayla Erduran-(Remzi Publishers, 2002)
Theodora’s Enemies -Novel- (Remzi Publishers, 2005)
Cemal Reşit Rey “Journeys
in a Musical World”-revised second
edition, includes a 2 CD set-, Dünya Books, 2005
Bülent Tarcan-“ Symphonic
Story of a Surgeon”- includes one CD (Dünya Books, 2006)
Theodora’s Enemies (In Greek),
(Livanis Publishers of Athens, 2007)
Music Over Time (A history of Western Music) 8th and 9th
editions with 10 Naxos CDs –Remzi Publishers, (2009, 2010)
Nevit Kodallı-A
Contemporary Voice Raised from Mersin –with one CD (PAN
Publications, 2009)
Yalçın Tura-A Multi-sided
Composer of Turkish Music (AKSAV, October 2009)
İlhan Usmanbaş-“Those were
the Immortal Seastones” –includes a 2-CD set (Yapı
Kredi Publications, enlarged new edition-2011)
Gürer Aykal-The Portrait
of a Republic’s Son as a Conductor (Sevda Cenap And Music
Foundation-Ankara-2012)
Music Over Time (A history of Western Music) 10th enlarged
edition with 10 Naxos CDs, (Remzi Publisphers), 2013
The Song of the Weeping Willow (portraits, impressions, interviews)-PAN Publisphers, 2014
The Song of the Weeping Willow (portraits, impressions, interviews)-PAN Publisphers, 2014
Face to Face with Maestro Gürer Aykal (Remzi Publishers, 2017)
I am Leyla Gencer, La Diva Turca (Yapı Kredi Publications, 2019)
I am Leyla Gencer, La Diva Turca (Yapı Kredi Publications, 2019)