BIOGRAPHY

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sönmezler was the Founding Chairman of the Music Department at the Girne American University from 2014 until 2019 in Cyprus. He gave concerts as a Soloist with major orchestras in Cyprus including TRNC Presidential Symphony Orchestra and Nicosia Turkish Municipality Orchestra. He also gave recitals at the Kammermusik Festival and Summer Academy in Austria, at the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival in Italy, at the SoundSCAPE Festival in Italy, at the 2nd Tucson Spanish and Flamenco Festival in USA, at the 1st Tucson International Guitar Festival in USA, at the 17th International North Cyprus Bellapais Music Festival in Cyprus, the Gala concert at the Nicosia Old Town Classical, Jazz and World Music Festival in Cyprus, at the Middle East Technical University, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Ankara Music and Fine Arts University and Anatolian University National Conservatory in Turkey to name the few.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler’s debut studio album “Koyunbaba” which is a solo classical guitar

album was released in December 2015 and his 2nd original studio album “Resurrection” which is an orchestral progressive rock album released in May 2021 and both of his albums are available digitally on all major music streaming platforms including Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, Pandora and Deezer. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler was one of the organizers of the First International Tucson Guitar Festival held at the University of Arizona School of Music in November 2009. He was the member of Tucson Guitar Society’s guitar orchestra and played at the first guitar section for 3 consecutive years.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler was on the jury in both Schaeffer Memorial Guitar Competition and William Wolfe Memorial Guitar Competition held in AZ, USA. He has given the world premieres of the works of many composers including Mark Zanter "Character Pieces for Guitar," Luca Vanneschi "Quattro Piccolli Pezzi Blu," and David S. Lefkowitz "(Sur-) Real (Cine-) Music I: The Chase Through Escher's Metamorphosen." Famous American composer John A. Carollo dedicated a solo classical guitar piece to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler called “Fantasia and semi-Passacaglia for guitar.” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler studied classical guitar with Acar Akalın, Matt Gould, Ray Chester and Thomas Patterson and he has performed for world-renowned classical guitar artists including Armin Egger, Massimo delle Cese, Philipe Villa, Mauricio Carrasco, Rafael Aguirre, Lukasz Kuropaczewski, David Tanenbaum, Paul Galbraith, Eduardo Fernandez, Sergio Assad, Odair Assad, David Russell and Manuel Barrueco.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sönmezler earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastern

Mediterranean University in Guitar performance in the first place with High-Honors with 3.92 Cum GPA, a Master of Music Degree in Guitar performance from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University with 3.87 Cum GPA, and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Guitar performance with 4.00 cumulative GPA from the University of Arizona School of Music. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler studied with Bruce Saunders, Rick Peckham, Robin Stone, Scotty Johnson and with the world-renowned guitar virtuoso Steve Vai at the Berklee College of Music and completed Steve Vai Guitar specialist certificate. He was an endorsing artist of SUHR guitars, amps and accessories along with HANNABACH guitar strings.

Currently, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sönmezler resides in Cyprus where he is teaching and performing on a regular basis.