Prof. Dr. BERKANT GENÇKAL

Berkant Gençkal was born in Bulgaria in 1977; he received his first piano lessons from his father, Yusuf Gençkal. In 1989, he and his family emigrated to Turkey, where he continued his studies with Professor Nergis Şakirzade Sarı. Berkant studied harmony with Zarife Bakihanova and composition with Elhan Bakihanov and on completeion of his Master's degree with Peter-Jan Wagemans, he undertook electronic music classes with René Uylenhoet. Further advanced theory studies followed with Michael Ellison, and ethnomusicology with Robert Riegle.

In 2000, Berkant's composition Suite for Piano, Strings and Percussion was placed 2nd runner-up in "The Young Musician of the Year" orchestral composition competition organized by The British Council. In 2002 he won second prize in the Eczacıbaşı Competition with his Virgin Stories, and in 2006 he won first prize with Suite Trakia in the same competition. His work Two Views Orient was premiered at the International Society for Contemporary Music festival in Stuttgart, 2006. In 2008 he won third prize at Culturscapes in Basel, Switzerland, with A Song from the Cave of Eternity. In 2017 he attended the 'Guitar+' summer festival held in Würzburg where his composition Das Tagebuch der Deren for the Hezarfen Ensemble and kanun was performed. In 2019 his piece Liquid Spaces was performed at Bilkent University by Norwegian ensemble CIKADA and the same piece was performed by Hezarfen Ensemble in Sweeden in 2024 under the project entitled: "Hezarfen: Recollection of Displacement".