Kemal Oksal

Position
Assistant Professor

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Career Highlights
  • Istanbul Pops Orchestra, music director
  • Cinema Symphony Orchestra, arranger/conductor
  • Mulm Records, founder/producer
  • Istanbul State Opera and Ballet Orchestra, former principal tuba
Awards
  • Maurice Peress Memorial Award, orchestral conducting, 2020
  • MIAM Chamber music competition, first prize, 2005
Education
  • M.M., Aaron Copland School of Music, orchestral conducting
  • M.M., Istanbul University, performance
  • B.M., Istanbul University, performance
  • Diploma, Berklee College of Music, contemporary writing and production 
In Their Own Words

"Euclid of Alexandria in The Elements, Book I, hinted that 'the whole is greater than the part.' I believe music producers and conductors create the 'whole' while keeping the 'part' valuable. Indeed, the whole is the outcome. But this outcome will be more artistic with valuable, polished, sensitively rendered integral parts. My goal is to be part of a cultural bridge to future generations by performing, leading, and teaching. As a multi-genre musician/producer my desire is to give a meaningful existence to any producible sound, vibration, and/or silence."


"As music director and conductor of the Istanbul Pops Orchestra, as a guest conductor and arranger for the Cinema Symphony Orchestra (a soundtrack orchestra based in Istanbul), and as the former assistant conductor of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, I have built a varied background as a musical creator, interpreter, and performer. I am a public advocate for the musical arts, active as a broadcaster with my radio talk show, Kayda Değer (Remarkable) on Açık Radio that has run on primetime for two seasons. I also currently lead a music production and record company, Mulm Productions, producing albums for rising instrumentalists, singers, and songwriters."


"I tend to avoid leading my music career on a single path. I embrace various styles and genres, such as classical, opera, movie score, rock, jazz, world, pop, and Balkan music. I have also been involved in many soundtracks, public performances, recording sessions, and concerts as an arranger, producer, bandleader, and conductor."