Ahmet Kanneci | en

Ahmet Kanneci was born in Türkiye, on June 21, 1957; he is a Turkish guitar virtuoso particularly on the Classic style. Currently, Kanneci is the chairman of the Department of Guitar, at Hacettepe University State Conservatory and actively teaching as well.

Kanneci first met and instantly fell in love with guitar when he saw a live performance of Alirio Díaz whom he later worked with and mentioned among his teachers. He began his music studies with Turgay Erdener, İstemihan Taviloğlu and Ali Sevgi. Meeting Julian Byzantine, with whom he continued his music studies, in 1977, he turned his attention to classical guitar. Four years later, while graduating from the Department of Architecture, he was awarded a scholarship from the Spanish Government to study with Josè Tomas at the “Conservatorio Superior de Música Óscar Esplá de Alicante”. He has had the privilege of playing for Alirio Diaz and receiving his critical acclaim.

When he returned to his native country, Türkiye, he was the first to found the classical guitar departments in four different conservatories. In 1993, he was awarded by Fulbright, a scholarship for research in the USA for which he was awarded with “Life Time Achievement in Art”. He was also awarded “Honorary Doctorate” by Harran University and Isparta S.D. University, Türkiye, and the “Award of Appreciation” by Middle East Technical University, Türkiye. In addition to his musical activities in Türkiye, he appeared in Europe, Asia, and in Americas at various concert halls such as Museo Andrés Segovia (Spain), Carnegie Hall (USA), Merkin Concert Hall (USA), Royal Festival Hall (UK) and Teatro Colón (Argentina). Besides his solo guitar concerts, he gave duo concerts with several artists such as Victor PIkaIzen (violin), Ayhan Erman (violin), Jorge Cardoso (guitar), Selva Erdener (soprano), Dorothy Randolph (baroque violin), Şefika Kutluer (flute), Ekrem Öztan (clarinette), Hiroki Terashima (Guitar), Javier Garcia Moreno (Guitar), and Diler Argat (piano). He was also the soloist several times in guitar concertos with orchestra.

Currently Kanneci is the chairman of the Department of Guitar at Hacettepe University State Conservatory and he is giving guitar courses at Sevda - Cenap AND Music Foundation in Ankara. He concentrates on performing works which have been dedicated to him, and is conducting research in guitar music that he has started with the distinguished Turkish guitarist Savaş ÇEKİRGE. The following modern composers have written compositions and dedicated them to him: T. ERDENER, F. SAY, J. CARDOSO, F. ORTIZ, E. BAYRAKTAR, H. E. KORKMAZ, İ. TAVİLOĞLU, N. BOSNA, M. A. CHERUBITO, C. PADRO, T. WALKER, M. TOROS, T. SHAHIDI, M. HOSHINO, H. TERASHIMA, F. CUENCA .