11 Ocak 2004, Turkish Daily News Gazetesi

Reflections by Şefik Kahramankaptan
Young talent makes us proud

A child sitting in the audience at Bilkent concerts never used to fail attract my attention. I finally asked Dean Işın Metin who the boy was who always rushed into the hall and found a good seat for himself to watch the concert. I began to pay more attention to him after Metin said, “He’s one of the most talented students at Bilkent University’s Music Preparatory School.”

Those who follow my articles will remember that I wrote about pianist Mertol Demirelli a while ago. Demirelli won the 12th IBLA Foundation’s Special Award in 2003, when he was only seven years old.

He competed in group A (those born after 1990) with a free program. The judges added Mertol’s name to the list of distinguished musicians and gave him the Kuhlau Special Award after his performance. He started his piano education when he was only five, under the guidance of Kamuran Gündemir, well known as the teacher of such young piano masters as Fazıl Say, Muhittin Durruoğlu Demiriz and Emre Elivar. He has been studying with Aylin Özügür for the past year at Bilkent’s music school for talented children. Mertol took part in the IBLA competition with the support of his family, trainers and school. After the competition Mertol told an Anatolia news agency reporter that he was not very excited and said: “My family and I studied a lot to achieve such a success. I beleive one day I will be a world-renowned pianist.”

I am writing about this in detail since it is necessary for families to direct, motivate and support these talented kids while also protecting them. Such successes are usually lavishly praised by the press, thus turning the children into snobs. I have seen many children who couldn’t continue their musical careers for this reason alone. So Mertol’s family really has to be carefull in motivating such a seven-year-old talent in order to prevent the negative effects he may face in the future.

Success of Buket Kartal

Another little pianist who has succeded in the international arena is 13-year-old Buket Kartal. She has been studying in Bilkent University’s Music Preparatory School for three years and is currently with Russian teacher Anna Garibian. Amazingly, Kartal received full marks in international- level exams three times running while studying in Antalya with Mehmet Çakmak, who graduated from Gazi University’s music teachers’ department. That means although she was not in a big city, she developed her talents brought them to Ankara and Bilkent.

Buket participated in the first competition of the European Piano Teachers Union held in Belgium. Although relatively inexperienced, she was among the competition’s seven finalists. Twenty-one students and their teachers took part, with Kartal alone representing Turkey. Only the winner, Florian Noack of Belgium, was announced, so the six other competitors never learned their relative ratings. So in a way Buket was a first runner-up. She has been invited to study with various teachers, indicating that she is a promising pianist.

I believe we will see much more young talent from Bilkent University’s Music Preparatory School (which carries the name of Ahmet Adnan Saygun) who will be successful in both the international and national arenas if the school continues to preserve and develop its educational system.