Assistant Professor Oruç Güvenç

Oruç Güvenç, a musician, music and movement therapist, ethnomusicologist, composer, and Sufi master, was born in Kütahya in 1948. He began his musical career at the age of 12 by taking violin lessons. He graduated from the Department of Philosophy at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Letters. During this time, he learned to play the oud, rebab, ney, and tanbur. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a focus on music therapy under Prof. Dr. Ayhan Songar at the Psychiatry Clinic of Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine and founded the Center for Research and Application of Turkish Music at Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine. As an instructor at the Institute of Turkish Studies at Marmara University, the Department of Music Ethnology, Research, and Music Therapy at Istanbul University, and most recently the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Üsküdar University, where she has trained students. She also founded and directed the Turkish Music Research and Promotion Group (TÜMATA), researched the origins and therapeutic value of Central Asian-derived Turkish music, examined traditional Central Asian Turkish folk music, the instruments used to perform this music, the costumes worn on stage, and the stage decorations and patterns; and many forgotten instruments were reproduced and played in a manner faithful to their originals, utilizing miniatures and written sources. He authored five books and composed works—both lyrics and music—in the genres of classical Turkish music and Sufi music; he invented a maqam called “Tarz-ı Vefa,” and composed a saz semai and a peşrev in this mode. Güvenç passed away in 2017 following a heart attack that occurred after he underwent surgery.