Current Fellows

© Anna Utkina
© Anna Utkina

Hakan Ulus

Composition

June, July, August 2021

Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg

Hakan Ulus (*1991 in Buxtehude) is a German composer. He studied composition with Tristan Murail, Adriana Hölszky, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf and Ernst Helmuth Flammer at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and the HMT Leipzig. He also received inspiration in master classes with Pierluigi Billone, Brian Ferneyhough, Chaya Czernowin and Steven Kazuo Takasugi. He was a fellow of the Harvard Composition Institute Residency 2014, DRC Singapore 2015 and ManiFeste Academy 2017.

Performances of his works in Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Turkey, USA, Australia, Singapore and Great Britain by Klangforum Wien, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, Talea Ensemble, Ensemble SurPlus, AuditivVokal Dresden, Norbotten NEO, Ensemble mise-en, IEMA-Ensemble, Ensemble Aventure and Hezarfen Ensemble, among others.

Various fellowships, e.g. Berlin Scholarship of the Akademie der Künste Berlin 2017/18, Artist in Residence at Thomas Bernhard Haus Ottnang 2019, Kunststiftung NRW 2017, Jonathan Harvey Scholarship 2017-20, IEMA 2015/16; prizes, e.g. impuls Composition Prize 2017, AuditivVokal Composition Prize 2018 and commissions, e.g. Klangforum Wien Australia National Academy for Music.

He teaches at the University of Huddersfield, where he is currently completing his PhD in composition (Supervisors: Aaron Cassidy and Liza Lim). Since January 2020 he has also been teaching analysis and aesthetics of contemporary art music at the Gustav Mahler Private University of Klagenfurt. His works are published by Edition Gravis.

During his three-month stay in Wiepersdorf, Hakan Ulus will compose a new piece for two bass clarinets, two saxophones and percussion. Clarinet and saxophone are, along with the piano, among the 'main instruments' in his music: "I am particularly interested in emphasizing the vocal, 'recitative' character of the instruments. The entire vocal apparatus should be compositionally illuminated and deconstructed. What new musical material can be generated when inhalation and exhalation are brought into direct contact with the instrument—for example, inhalation sounds combined with tight vibrato and flutter tongue? The interest in this approach comes primarily from the musical fascination with Koranic recitation and its fine nuances. The Koran recitation has been an important source of inspiration for my music for several years now".

http://www.hakanulus.de/de