Dirge Seçil Kuran

About

Dirge Secil Kuran is a multi-instrumentalist from Istanbul Turkey. She has a career longer than 10 years as a classical and contemporary percussionist including working with Istanbul State Orchestra, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Sa.Ne.Na percussion group, and many more, Aside her classical and contemporary studies, she has been working with different styles of music and artists as a recording artist, performer, and a band member. After moving in to the Netherlands for her masters in HKU Music and Technology, she expanded her profession, with a combination of electronics, percussion, modular synthesisers and with her vocals, into performing and composing for contemporary music, theatre, opera, and dance companies such as Club Guy & Roni, Het Filiaal Theatermakers, HIIIT, NITE, Silbersee, and as well as for her solo performances and compositions.

Biography

Dirge Secil Kuran, while she was eleven years old, accepted to Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University & State Conservatory as a piano student. After two years of piano education, she decided to change her focus to classical percussion studies. The move turned out to be very successful, and soon she had earned the respect of her surrounding and the scene around it. By the age eighteen, while she was still studying, she had been already performing regularly with the Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra, who performed in BBC Proms 2014, and joining Sa.ne.na improved her contemporary skills and led her to involve in many Turkish premieres of contemporary pieces, including Steve Reich’s complete Drumming with a collaboration with HIIIT in Istanbul. She had been worked with many other ensembles and orchestras around Turkey which allowed her performance in variety of situations, and led her for a successful career in music by the time she graduated in 2011, and beyond.

In addition to performing classical and contemporary music, her interest in other musical genres, including industrial rock to electro-acoustic compositions, led her to study Recording & Music Production in MMA for a year. After years of busy working on her area as a performer, she decided to expand her musical skills and create her own music.

This passion led Dirge to learn advanced music technology and production techniques at Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) in the Netherlands in 2016. This decision ultimately prepared her for producing and releasing her first solo art rock project Dyrghé, in which she uses her vocals, electronics and percussion, and also for her crossover and electroacoustic improvisational performances.

Now as a multi-instrumentalist, she uses her musical skills to perform and compose for contemporary music, theatre, opera, and dance companies, and as well as for her solo performances and compositions.