Praised by the Washington Post as a “major talent of international caliber”, for Şirin Pancaroğlu, discovering a variety of musical identities for the harp is a central endeavor. Trained as a classical harpist at Geneva Conservatory and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, she is equally active in the realm of Turkish music, improvisation, contemporary music, tango and semi-staged performances as she is in mainstream harp repertoire. Regular collaborations with performers and composers of diverse backgrounds have led Pancaroğlu to cross boundaries between musical styles often resulting in music that has been perceived as opening the path to new genres.
Recognized for her thorough interpretative skills and multifaceted personality, Şirin has been presenting collaborative projects, concerts in over twenty countries and has twelve recordings to her credit. She also has been devoted to sharing her musical roots with audiences, connecting them to her worldly ideas. Her work on unearthing the historical Turco-Ottoman harp, the çeng, led her to become closely acquainted with traditional Turkish music. First transcribing and arranging from the traditional Turkish music repertoire, she later started composing music with ties to the tradition and beyond.
Şirin is the creator of “Turkish Harp”, a project aimed at introducing Turkish music to harpists worldwide. As editor of “The Turkish Harp Music Collection”, she has been diligently working on a selection of old and new Turkish music which she combined with some of her compositions published by 80 Days Publishing in the UK. Conceived for lever and pedal harps and addressing different profiles such as amateur players, students and professionals she is also conducting Turkish tunes workshops for harpists based on her publications. With twelve albums releases to her credit, she is currently recording a series of singles which will add up to a new album, entitled “Alaim-i Sema” (Rainbow), consisting only of her own music. Şirin feels very lucky to have received the teachings of Susann McDonald, Catherine Eisenhoffer, Notburga Puskas, Pierre Jamet and Frederique Cambreling. She lives in Urla, a small town on the Aegean coast of Turkey with her husband and has a 16-year old son.
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