Ekin Su Paker & Fügen Yiğitgil - International Gümüşlük Music Festival

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EKİN SU PAKER, Soprano

Turkish-German soprano Ekin Su Paker, after completing her tenure at the Oper Frankfurt Opera Studio, has been regularly invited back as a guest soloist. She continues her career at leading European institutions such as Theater an der Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, and Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

She began her musical journey at the age of 10 as a solo pianist at the Bursa Music Festival, and entered her vocal career at the age of 15 with concerts with the İzmir State Symphony Orchestra under conductor Erol Erdinç.

Her notable operatic repertoire includes Die Walküre (Helmwige), Dialogues des Carmélites (Blanche), La fedeltà premiata (Celia), L’incoronazione di Poppea (Poppea), Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina), and Die Banditen (Herzogin).

In her stage work, she has collaborated with renowned directors such as Claus Guth, Brigitte Fassbaender, Katharina Thoma, Ted Huffman, Jetske Mijnssen, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Olivier Tambosi, Alfred Dorfer, and Aytaç Manizade. Her musical interpretation has been shaped under conductors including Sebastian Weigle, Steven Sloane, Erik Nielsen, Konrad Junghänel, Tito Ceccherini, Marc Piollet, Karsten Januschke, Michael Millard, Stefan Gottfried, as well as Turkish conductors İbrahim Yazıcı and Murat Cem Orhan.

As a concert soloist and guest artist, she has performed at venues such as Alte Oper Frankfurt, with the Philharmonisches Orchester Aschaffenburg, and at the International Efes Opera and Ballet Festival. Throughout her career, she has given solo concerts in prestigious halls, museums, and embassies in cities including London, Salzburg, Urbino (Italy), and Athens. Her 2020 performance at Theater an der Wien was broadcast live on ORF 3.

After graduating from İzmir Tevfik Fikret Science High School, she studied at Istanbul University State Conservatory under Prof. Güzin Gürel, completed her master’s degree (MA) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (Prof. Ulf Bästlein), and earned her postgraduate diploma (Bühnenexamen) at the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts in Germany. She further refined her studies in masterclasses with Neil Shicoff, Brigitte Fassbaender, Edith Wiens, Barbara Bonney, Eva Mei, Alfonso Antoniozzi, and Charles Spencer.

Ekin Su Paker is also the founder of The Artful Nest, a contemporary cultural platform that brings together music, visual arts, and refined listening experiences in an interdisciplinary format.

FÜGEN YİĞİTGİL

She began her musical education at the İzmir State Conservatory. She later graduated from the Piano Advanced Department of the Ankara State Conservatory as a student of Mithat Fenmen.

In 1980, she joined the Ankara State Opera and Ballet as a repetiteur.

She participated in courses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Italy and later studied for one year at the Mannes College of Music.

She has performed concerts in Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United States, Portugal, China, Northern Cyprus, Egypt, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Pakistan, Oman, South Korea, and South Africa, as well as in Turkey, collaborating with numerous national and international artists. She has also made radio and television recordings.

She worked for many years as a faculty member at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory, at Başkent University Opera and Voice Department, and later in Istanbul at Haliç University and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory.

The artist is currently a member of the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet and also teaches at Bahçeşehir University Musical Theatre Department. She has also been working for the past two years at the George Pehlivanian PPOA Masterclasses in Bled, Slovenia.

CONCERT PROGRAM

Richard Strauss (1864–1949)

Morgen, Op. 27 No. 4

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)

Liebst du um Schönheit (Rückert-Lieder)

Ahmet Şefik Gürmeriç (1904–1967)

Hasret

Türk Halk Müziği

Yalgızam / Sana da Kalmaz

Düzenleme: Teyfik Guliev

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Come scoglio (Così fan tutte)