Trained and conducted the chorus of Robert College, Istanbul. Conducted many concerts with this chorus in international festivals, Turkey, Poland, Russia and Holland. 1975-1977 Joined Robert College the Humanities faculty and taught music courses (301) Intro to Music and (302) Comparative Turkish Music.
1978 Present Graduate, Istanbul Faculty of Law. Student of Ihsan Balkir at the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory. Studied harmony and orchestration with Cemal Resit Rey (One of the Turkish Fives.) Retired Dean, Arts and Design Faculty, Istanbul Yildiz Technical University.Lecturing and training and conducting the Istanbul Yildiz Technical University. 1983 Present Founded Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus, the only private chorus and orchestra in Turkey, comprised of 60 musicians, playing both Turkish instruments (Ud, Kemence, Tanbur, Ney, Kanun…) and Western instruments (violin, cello, flute…
Conducted many concerts in Turkey in International Istanbul Arts Festival, Finland, International Helsinki Festival, Holland, Italy, Belgium and Germany,USSR Played his Kanun as a soloist in many countries and more than once: England, Greece, Italy, Lebenon, Egypt, Germany, USA, Belgium, Holland, Polland, USSR Played The Concerto for Kanun, composed by H.Ferid Alnar , the uniqe concerto composed for a traditional Turkish music instrument 31 times with different symphonic orchestras and realized it’s long playing record with the Oradea Philarmonic Orchestra/ Hungary Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus’s first recording, “Uyan Ey Gozlerim” Music 400 years old. (Ottoman Sufi Music) compiled by Ali Ufki (1610-1675).
Awarded the Cultural Achievement Prize of Turkey by JAYCEES-TYOP USA 1999 Recorded CD’s “Cantata for Sheikh Galib” and “Tura Songs” Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus About Ayangil by Jeff Gatesman/ Landscape Magazine Ruhi Ayangil is a chorus and orchestra conductor and musician–a Kanun soloist ,I first met Ruhi when he was touring North America with the Whirling Dervishes in 1998; his third tour with the Turkish Sufi performers. At that time we spoke about his love of music, both contemporary western and traditional Turkish music. And he told me of his passion; his dream to preserve traditional Turkish music and to integrate it with contemporary orchestrations and instruments.And so it was with great pleasure that I recieved the two recently recorded cd’s by the Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus, the only private chorus and orchestra in Turkey, which Ruhi founded in 1983.
Landscape magazine is proud to offer streaming versions of two songs from “Cantata for Sheikh Galib” and “Tura Songs”. While you are listening, be sure to check out Ruhi’s personal essay “The Aim of Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus and the Importance of Yalcin Tura’s Compositions”, his bio and comments about the CD’s by composer Yalcin Tura. Kanun: Turkish stringed instrument. Zither-like, with seventy-two strings. Cantata: usually sacred choral composition comprising choruses, solos, recitatives and interludes CD AYANGIL TURKISH MUSIC ORCHESTRA & CHORUS Cantata for Sheikh Galib Compositor:Yalcın Tura Conductor: Ruhi Ayangil This cantata, composed by the brilliant Turkish composer Yalcin Tura, a contemporary avantgardist in renovation and improvement of Turkish music, is a perfect example of Turkish music evaluated in a polyphonic music language with universal forms using Turkish sound systems, rhythm and makams. Here is the story in its composer’s own words: “While he was translating it into the Turkish language we use today, my old friend, writer and poet Turhan Oflazoglu remarked that Sheikh Galib’ s poem Hüsn-ü Ask can be transformed into an opera. We immediately began to work on it. I have written music partitions to some of Sheikh Galib’s poems, which later were formed into a cantata. One must be well aware of some nostalgic trends in literature, especially Mevlevi teachings, its literature and concepts of symbolism in order to understand Sheikh Galilb’s poetry. In this cantata the feelings and various moods of the poet is told about who is in love with the Divine love, his pain, his state of mind, his thoughts and the ranks he gets to in the end. It is important to notice the use of purely Turkish musical patterns in this Western musical form Cantata. The poet talks about his darling. “With your first glimpse you turn my heart into a wine cup.
I’m as joyful and merry as you are now. I’m at a place now where it feels almost the same being with or without you. I am in love with you, I’m almost sick with the pain of your love to which you are the only cure.” AN ESSAY by RUHI AYANGIL : “THE MISSION OF AYANGIL TURKISH MUSIC ORCHESTRA & CHORUS” I was just a young boy,almost at the beginning of adulthood and was seeking my way through and into music when I first came across Rauf Yekta Bey’s and Hüseyin Saadettin Arel’s (the two Turkish musicologists) ideas expressed at the beginning of this century. Their ideas envisioned that: 1. Traditional Turkish music should be gathered and put into a systematic order and practiced accordingly. 2. Traditional Turkish music should be rewritten, this time keeping in mind the necessities of musical science for traditional Turkish instruments and human voices. 3. Traditional Turkish music should be improved at the same time, being equipped with polyphonic musical opportunities. 4. Brilliant composers are needed to improve Turkish music, so their training should be especially encouraged and maintained with enthusiasm so they themselves will later contribute to the improvement of Turkish music to the extent of flourishing it. These ideas found their way into my heart and into the depths of my mind and dictated a mission to me at a very young age, as I was at the beginning of playing Kanun and performing Turkish music with deep social impact, and those ideas even penetrated deep into my soul, almost with pain. It was my firm determination that led me to put my thoughts into action because they were not amateur intentions, but scientific and correct ideas, and so I have been a soldier on this path for the last twenty five years. Ayangil Turksih Music Orchestra and Chorus was founded with those principles in mind and through it I met the brilliant composer Yalcin Tura on this path as if by pre-intentions, and this path formed it’ s own audience. Olympus is not to be conquered alone! One sets off alone but thousands reach there. Olympus is not to be reached alone! Yalcin Tura,first adopted “AKLIMI YELLERE VERDIM” (I have given my mind to winds) in 1978 as the first piece of music for orchestra that could be played in performances in Russia with The Bosphorous University Chorus (Robert College Chorus, Istanbul) which I was conducting at that time. This was the beginning…
Then we experienced with joy and fulfillment many other pieces, and the first performance of each was played by Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus. Each piece was meaningful, almost like a long musical journey by which we were deeply satisfied, felt proud and content. In short,we have enjoyed a long journey by our highly productive artistic frendship. At the same time, we have also proved the reality of those ideas mentioned at the beginning of this introduction. Our friendship was founded and improved upon in the last quarter of this century only by the above mentioned projects. Wishes and dreams were the true realities of Turkish Music. Ayangil Turkish Music Orchestra and Chorus is well aware of the historical importance of determining the shape, sound and objectives of Turkish music in the twenty first century with our brilliant composer Yalcin Tura. We are happy and proud to present these pieces of work to our devoted audience. The two CDs..Cantata for Sheikh Galib and Tura Songs… We are thrilled by this work. Our sponsor, Turkiye Is Bankasi, has put a triumphal crown on our Turkish music which was, in fact, a sound garland knitted by our briliant composer Yalcin Tura, and by sponsoring this CD project on the composers sixty fifth anniversary, opened the gates of an historical transformation in Turkish Music.
