Taner Akyol

Taner Akyol learned to play the Bağlama, a long-necked lute, at an early age. Born in Bursa, Turkey, in 1977, he trained as a violinist in his hometown and moved to Berlin in 1996, where he studied with Helmut Zapf, Hanspeter Kyburz and Walter Zimmermann. As a Bağlama soloist and composer, Taner Akyol has been awarded numerous prizes. In his works, he often achieves an energetic synthesis between advanced Western and traditional Turkish music that goes beyond superficial charms. He is co-founder of the intercultural ensemble Cornocopia and has directed the international music school ta Musikatelier in Berlin-Kreuzberg since 2004. At the end of 2012, Taner Akyol's children's opera "Ali Baba and the 40 Robbers" premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin to great acclaim.