Burak Onur Erdem

Keynote Speaker

Speaker Profile

Dr. Burak Onur Erdem is the permanent conductor of the Turkish State Polyphonic Choir of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. He graduated from Boğaziçi University, Department of Political Science & International Relations with the Rector's Award. He completed his master's degree in music theory and doctorate in conducting at ITU Music Advanced Research Center. He then received a post-doctoral diploma in choral conducting as a student of Prof. Johannes Prinz at Graz University of the Arts.

Among those he studied with during his studies were Michael Ellison (form & music theory), Adam Roberts (advanced harmony), Paul Whitehead (renaissance & baroque style), Lynn Trepel Caglar (singing). In international masterclasses, she has studied with Johannes Prinz, Maria Guinand, Anders Eby, Volker Hempfling, Denes Szabo, Michael Gohl, Georg Grün and others.

In 2009 he started the Boğaziçi University Choirs Festival (KoroFest), in 2012 he founded the Choral Culture Association, in 2015 he was elected to the board of directors of the European Federation of Choirs and in 2018 he was appointed to the board of directors of the International Federation of Choral Music as the European representative, he was a member of the music commission of Europa Cantat Tallinn and Ljubljana Festivals and chairman of the music commission of Leading Voices Utrecht Festival.

During his German High School years, he received awards in the guitar and singing branches in the Jugend Musiziert competitions. Since his university years, he has given concerts with his choirs in countries such as Portugal, Italy, Holland, Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey. With Rezonans, which he founded, he won awards in the most prestigious competitions in Europe such as Cork, Arezzo, Varna, Marktoberdorf. He was invited to the Italian National Choral Conducting Competition, Arezzo International Choral Competition, German National Choral Competition and Japan National Choral Competition as a jury. He was the founder of Bahçeşehir University Choir School and gave choral conducting workshops in different cities of Turkey and Europe.

Since 2013, he has given numerous concerts in Turkey and Europe with the State Polyphonic Choir, co-founded the Walter Strauss Choral Conducting Master Class in 2016, conducted a capella premieres of Turkish composers, initiated and recorded European composers to write works in Turkish, and was accepted as one of the members of TENSO (European Professional Choirs Association) in 2019 with the choir.

He was the festival director of the 2023 Istanbul World Choral Music Symposium. He is currently the Vice President of the European Choral Federation and International Choral Federation.