Gürer Aykal

Gürer Aykal — Biography

Gürer Aykal is one of the best-known orchestral conductors in Turkey and was named State Artist in 1981. He led the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and from 1999 was involved in the founding and direction of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra. An international conducting competition that bears his name was held in Eskişehir for the first time in 2026.

He began music with lessons from his father and entered the Ankara State Conservatory in 1953, studying violin with Necdet Remzi Atak and then composition in Adnan Saygun's class. In 1969 he went to London on a state scholarship, took conducting lessons at the Guildhall School of Music from figures such as André Previn and George Hurst, and then completed a doctorate at Santa Cecilia in Rome (1973). Back in Turkey he founded the Ankara Chamber Orchestra with Suna Kan, and in the mid-1970s became principal conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. In Texas he was music director of the Lubbock and El Paso symphony orchestras; in 2000-2004 he founded and developed the Antalya Orchestra, and in 2014 he became artistic director of the Antalya International Piano Festival. He conducted world premieres of works by Turkish composers, among them Saygun's Fourth Symphony and Necil Kazım Akses's Second Symphony, and appeared as guest with ensembles such as the London Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra.

He has taught throughout: at Bilkent University, and as a professor at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University from 2006.