With his compositional oeuvre, Ataç Sezer is one of the most artistically outstanding composers of the current music scene. His work is based on a broad and well-founded musical education and diverse biographical experiences.
Born in Istanbul, he initially studied Ottoman music, majoring in ney, piano and musicology. In 2002 he came to Kassel to study composition with the Argentinian Diego H. Feinstein. During this time he was also influenced by studies with Dieter Schnebel in Berlin and master classes with Beat Furrer and Marc Andre. Sezer passed his artistic maturity examination in 2007. Studies in the master class with Prof. Matthias Pintscher at the University of Music and Theater in Munich until 2010 completed his education.
The compositional and aesthetic questions that Atac Sezer deals with are a logical result of the diversity of these experiences. On the one hand, Sezer pursues a systematic and discursive examination of the modal tonal systems of the Arab world; and this is accompanied by reflection on the possibilities of microtonal and electronic music from a European perspective. On the other hand, Sezer pursues a systematic examination of the techniques and sounds of the Arab instruments such as the long-necked flute Ney or the bowed box-necked lute Kemençe; this is accompanied by the exploration of new notation systems and playing techniques for the European instruments.
The Ottoman-Turkish and European cultural areas, their artistic and compositional practices, mark the double framework for Atac Sezer's works. However, in terms of composition and performance practice, they form little more than a material basis that Sezer has the greatest knowledge and virtuosity of and from which he advances to an individual musical style.
The composition "Peschrev - Prelude" for ney, electric bass and electronics from 2008 was the first to formulate this in a paradigmatic way. The traditional elements do not fall into a false synthesis or symbiosis in which one or the other appears as an exotic, picturesque addition, but rather enter into a mode of mutual reflection and penetration. In this way, Sezer formulates a critical and at the same time independent artistic-aesthetic position in the discourse on new music, which opposes the post-colonialist perspective on classical music from the Arab or Asian region that often prevails today.
Atac Sezer's work is based on the primacy of new, literally unheard-of sound. Systematically and on the basis of comprehensive compositional expertise, Sezer develops his ideas in a series of works that examine the most diverse instrumentations in terms of this dimension of sound. The fact that instrumentations from solo to large orchestra are considered, and electronics and ensemble size are also taken into account, once again indicates the composer's wide-ranging competence.
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