About

Mahir Cetiz is a composer, conductor and scholar, who lives in the USA, teaching as the assistant professor of composition and music theory at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. His compositional discourse includes works for orchestra, pieces for acoustic ensembles of different sizes, as well as solo instrumental pieces and pieces for and with electronics. As an active performing musician, Cetiz is continuously engaged with the performance of new music. In past, his compositions received performances by such ensembles as: International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, New York Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic and Zurich-Tonhalle Orchestra. As a composer, his interests include (but not limited to); middle-eastern and Indian traditional music, medieval polyphony and the perception of musical gestures.

Cetiz earned his DMA degree from Columbia University where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, Fabien Levy and Tristan Murail. Before his studies at Columbia, he earned his undergraduate degree from Ankara State Conservatory, where he studied cello, piano, conducting and composition. Following his graduate studies at the University of Memphis and Hacettepe University (Turkey), he lived in Manchester, UK for two years. As the recipient of “the musician of the year award” given by British Council, he studied and worked as a composer and performer, associated with Royal Northern College of Music. Before moving to New York, Cetiz also worked as a faculty member in Bilkent University in Ankara between 2003 and 2006, teaching composition and music theory courses. Cetiz is a 2017 Guggenheim Fellow and the recipient of prestigious awards, including the Nadia Boulanger Composer Award from Les Écoles d’Art Americaines de Fontainebleau.