Özkan Manav

Ali Özkan Manav (born May 20, 1967) is a Turkish contemporary classical composer, educator, and music theorist. He is known for integrating Turkish modal traditions with contemporary Western compositional practices.

His music combines microtonality, spectral color, aleatoric textures, and formal complexity with references to Turkish folk and maqamic traditions. Since 1991, he has taught composition at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.

His works have been performed by internationally recognized ensembles and orchestras, and his contribution to Turkish contemporary music has earned both national and international distinction.

Early life and education Özkan Manav was born in Mersin on 20 May 1967. His family moved to Istanbul in 1971, where he spent most of his childhood and formative years. His first formal encounter with music came through his mother, who was a ballet dancer before her marriage. Between 1980 and 1985 he studied piano privately with Hülya Saydam, during which time he began experimenting with composition.

In 1984 he entered the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University, where he studied harmony and counterpoint with Erçivan Saydam, composition and modal theory with Ahmed Adnan Saygun, and aesthetics with philosopher Afşar Timuçin. After graduating in 1991, he continued advanced studies with İlhan Usmanbaş, completing his master's degree in 1994.

Between 1996 and 1999, Manav pursued doctoral studies at Boston University, studying composition with Lukas Foss and Marjorie Merryman.

Academic career Immediately after graduating in 1991, Manav joined the faculty of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory, where he has taught solfege and instrumentation, then composition, counterpoint and fugue continuously. Over more than three decades, he has mentored many Turkish composers who later gained prominence in both Turkish and international contemporary music circles.

Beyond composition pedagogy, he has also contributed to Turkish musicology through research and publication, most notably co-authoring Müzikte Alımlama (“Reception in Music”), a study examining musical perception and interpretation in contemporary aesthetics.

Musical style Manav's compositional language has evolved through several stylistic phases.

Beginning in the early 2000s, his style became increasingly concerned with the integration of Turkish maqamic pitch structures and folk-derived ornamentation. Rather than quoting folk melodies directly, he transforms their intervallic and gestural logic into abstract formal systems. This approach is especially evident in works such as Portamento lento and Uzun Hava, which reinterpret traditional expressive gestures through modern chamber textures.

His chamber works include Sinfonietta (1989–90), Symphonic Dances (1999–2000), Reflections (2006), Countryside Landscapes: Winter (2007), and Uzun Hava (2011). Significant solo works include Partita for viola, Taqsim for clarinet, Pigeons for harp, and Horon! for violin.

His six-part piano cycle Movement (1994–2009) is considered one of his most substantial explorations of pianistic structure and timbral transformation.

In 2024 he completed Senza rallentando, a concertante work for darbuka part and orchestra, exploring sustained temporal tension and gradual transformation of modal harmonic fields.

Works

Orchestra Symposium (1991) Andante Lugubre (1993) Sforzati (1997–98) Carian Diary (2001) Portamento lento (2002) Four Turkish Folk Songs (2010) Haydar Haydar (2015) Plural (2020) Senza rallentando, for darbuka and orchestra (2023–24) Horonlar, string orchestra (2024) Myths of Time and the River, for saxophone quartet and orchestra (2026)

Chamber Ensemble Sinfonietta, wind instruments, timpani and xylophone (1989–90) Symphonic Dances, 7 percussionists (1999–2000) Reflections, piano and nine performers (2006) Countryside Landscapes: Winter, fourteen string instruments (2007) Uzun Hava, eight winds and two string instruments (2011) We talked, the sound of water in our palms (2019) Bilmem Şu Feleğin Bende Nesi Var, violin, viola and piano (2013) Ludus Modalis, violin, violoncello and piano (2016) Horonlar, string quartet (2024) Ali Onbaşı’nın Türküsü, eight-part choir (2018) Arkam Sensin Kalam Sensin Dağlar Hey (2018)

Authored Work Müzikte Alımlama (Reception in Music), Pan Yayıncılık, Istanbul, 2012. [with Mehmet Nemutlu]