İstemihan Taviloğlu

Who was İstemihan Taviloğlu?

İstemihan Taviloğlu was a Turkish composer and a music educator. He's most known piece is the Clarinet Concerto which happens to be the first ever Clarinet Concerto composition from a Turkish Compositor. He is also the co-founder of the Musicology department in Ankara State Conservatory. He is also known as the teacher of all the musicians that came from conservatories in Turkey.

Born in Tekirdağ, Turkey on April 15, 1945, he was the third child of Ahmet and Nuriye Taviloglu. Istemihan entered the Istanbul Conservatory at the age of eleven began violin instruction for one year, and changed his concentration to clarinet under the direction of Tevfik Çelen. In 1963 he transferred to Ankara State Conservatory and continued his clarinet education with Hayrullah Duygu. After he graduated with a music performance degree as a clarinet player he began pursuing his Master's and DMA degrees in music composition and theory under Adnan Saygun and Erçivan Saydam. In addition he also took composition from Ilhan Usmanbaş and studied Music Theory and Solfege with Muammer Sun.

Taviloğlu taught at Ankara State Conservatory and at Dokuz Eylül Conservatory in İzmir. According to the Turkish Daily News, he composed the first Turkish clarinet concerto.