Tekfen Foundation has recently announced the recipients of its music scholarships for the 2020-2021 academic year. After considering the field of candidates, the jury chaired by Tekfen Philharmonic Artistic Director and Conductor Aziz Shokhakimov announced that the year’s scholarships were going to cellist Görkem Çiçek and to flautist Seher Karabiber.
In its ongoing efforts to support classical music in Turkey, Tekfen Foundation introduced its Music Scholarship programme in 2019. In the second year of the programme, forty-four students submitted their online applications to seek support for their undergraduate studies of Western classical music abroad. Nineteen of the candidates qualified for the second round, in which their performance videos were rated according to six essential criteria: Technique, Musicality, Intonation, Stage Presence, Passion, and Potential. The 2020-2021 scholarship recipients are Görkem Çiçek, studying cello at Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien in Hannover, and Seher Karabiber, studying flute at Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. Last year’s scholarship recipients Yunus Altıkanat (cello) and Seyfi Can Dağlar (bassoon) are both continuing their studies with Tekfen Foundation support in Berlin at Barenboim-Said Akademie and at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler respectively.