Biography
Tolgahan Çoğulu was born in Ankara in 1978. He started his guitar training at age of twelve. In 1996, he entered the Department of Business Administration at Bosphorus University and continued his guitar education in Folklore Club. He studied flamenco guitar and classical guitar with Ayhan Akkaya.
After graduating from Bosphorus University in 2001, Çoğulu entered Istanbul Technical University, Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM). Between 2001and 2006, he studied with Soner Egesel and Bekir Küçükay. He has attended the classical guitar festivals of Lambesc, Esztregom, Iserlohn, and Westfalian Guitar Spring to take part in the closing concerts.
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Çoğulu gave lecture recitals entitled “The Impact of Anatolian Music on Classical Guitar Repertoire” and “Arrangements of Anatolian Folk Melodies for Classical Guitar” in the 4th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities, the Aveiro University Performa’07: Conference on Performance Studies, the first International Student Symposium at Istanbul Technical University Musicology Club, Canada York University and University of Memphis. He has attended the master classes of Roland Dyens, Ricardo Moyano, Jorge Cardoso, Marco Meloni, Elena Papandreau, Maria Livia Sao Marcos, Lily Afshar, Thomas Muller-Pering and Thomas Kirchhoff.
Çoğulu founded the classical guitar duo "Duoist" with Erhan Birol in 2007, the classical guitar and flute duo "Istanbul Flut-Gitar Ikilisi" with Aysu Sulu Sanver in 2007, and the classical guitar and violin duo "Duo Aqua" with Ajda Boydağ in 2008. Çoğulu gave concerts with these ensembles in many festivals including the University of Memphis, the 9th International Yıldız Technical University Guitar Festival, the 7th and 8th International Afyon Karahisar Classical Music Festival.
Çoğulu is also a member of Bosphorus Performing Arts Ensemble since 2001. He played in ‘Kardes Turkuler’ and ‘45’lik Sarkilar’ projects. In 2008, he designed the "Adjustable Microtonal Guitar". Currently, Çoğulu works as a research assistant at MIAM, and continues his doctoral degree.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.