“Such committed playing and devotion to beauty of sound and thought,” raved the Greek newsletter “Paros Life”, one of the many accolades Duruöz has received from critics and performers alike.

Cem Duruöz began studying guitar at the age of eleven with Safa Gürbüz and Ahmet Kanneci and won the first prize in the Turkish National Guitar Competition at the age of seventeen. He subsequently performed in major concert halls in Turkey. Acknowledging his talent, the Italian and English governments awarded scholarships to enable him to participate in the master-classes of John Duarte, Oscar Ghiglia and Eliot Fisk. In 1990, Mr. Duruöz moved to the United States and matriculated at Stanford University, where he won the Stanford Soloist award. Since his United States debut, he has performed in Argentina, Turkey, Japan, Brazil, Greece, and throughout the US. In addition to his concert performances, he has been a guest in various radio and TV programs in the US, Turkey, Brazil and Argentina.

His first solo CD Pièces de Viole, which consists of his own transcriptions of gamba music by Marin Marais, was released by Centaur Records in 2001 (CRC 2498), and received critical acclaim in international magazines such as American Record Guide, Fanfare, Classical Guitar and BBC Music (www.piecesdeviole.com). American Record Guide called it “Stylish, elegant and unexpectedly idiomatic.” Fanfare called it “A fine outing.” His new CD, Contemporary Music for Guitar, which has also been released by Centaur Records, includes works written for him by award winning composers, T. Sevilla, J. Rockmaker, B. Hoinic, D. Hahn and N. Hind as well as masterpieces of guitar repertoire by Walton and Davidovsky.

Cem Duruöz received a Master’s degree in classical guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with David Tanenbaum. He also studied at the Aspen School of Music with Sharon Isbin and completed another Master’s degree in composition at Stanford University. More information about Cem Duruöz can be found on his web site: www.duruoz.com.

address: PO Box 225295, San Francisco, CA 94122-5295, USA
e-mail: duruoz@duruoz.com
web: http://www.duruoz.com, http://www.piecesdeviole.com
phone: (415) 665 1481
fax: (415) 242 4157

Sema Karaoglu, Founder
Sons_of_Ataturk@yahoo.com