RENOWNED JAZZ GUITARISTS

Ümit Tunçağ
Born in Izmir in 1948, Tunçağ attended Gazi Elementary School and Izmir College (now called Bornova Anatolian High School). He graduated from Ege University’s Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences, studying Production and Personel Management.
In 1967 he started work as a producer for İzmir’s TRT Radio. Since 1975, he has also been working as a television newsreader. After serving for 18 years as a state official for TRT, he transferred to the private sector but continued at TRT as a producer and Publisher.
To date, he has prepared and presented 3000 radio and nearly 500 TV programs.
In the private sector, he first worked for the Aegean Investment Group as Public Relations Director, and later for the Sheraton Voyager Antalya Hotel as Social Affairs Manager.
From December 1991 to March 2002, he served as the External Relations Director of PHILSA. After retiring from there he continued to work as Philsa’s Adviser until 2006. From 2006 to 2007, he worked as the External Relations Director for SARDES Nickel Company in Turgutlu. Since 2010, he has been serving as Bornova Municipality’s Culture and Art Consultant.
His son Tan Tunçağ (1975) is a graduate of Mimar Sinan University’s Fine Arts Faculty Theater Department, and is currently working as an artist of the PORTECHO group. Since February 1998, he has been married to Oya El-Cherbiny Tunçağ, a retired violinist from Izmir’s State Symphony Orchestra.

Selim Gürcan, bass guitar, contrabass
Born in Ankara in 1977, Selim graduated from the “Anadolu University State Conservatory String Instrument Making” department in 2008. While studying violin making at school, Selim started playing the cello, and after graduation became interested in jazz, playing the double bass and later studying Jazz Harmony with Onur Mülayim. He started playing the bass guitar while he was in Ankara. Selim Gürcan has worked with various artists and national orchestras in Turkey, playing bass guitar on seven albums and double bass on four others. He continues his musical career in Izmir and Istanbul with “YUMAK Symphonic Orchestra / Folking Around The World”, “Selim Gürcan Trio”, “Sibel Köse & Önder Focan Band”, “Nilüfer Akdoğu / Aristo’ya İnat”, “Tolga Bilgin Jazz Ensemble”, “Brosynth” and various other Jazz Groups. He has worked with Fatih Erkoç, Emin Fındıkoğlu, Jesse Selengut, Sibel Köse, Önder Focan, Turgut Alp Bekoğlu, Murat Karahan, Zafer Çebi, Onur Mülayim, Tolga Taviş, Engin Recepoğulları, Tolga Bilgin, Devrim Yeşilpınar, Levent Gündüz, Alper Kömürcü, Robert Mehmet İkiz, Alp Özdayı, Bora Peynirci, Serenad Bağcan, Yahya Dai, Nilüfer Akdoğu, Sedat Yüce, Ayhan Öztoplu and Ateş Tezer. Selim Gürcan is an artist of “NS Design” and plays bass guitar on “NS Design CR5 Radius”. “My Music Box” was his first album, released on June 11, 2021under the record label Music Box Production which he founded.

Onur Mülayim, guitar
Born in Ankara in 1984, he started playing guitar at the age of 15. From 2003 onwards, Onur Mülayim taught at various music schools in Ankara,  entering the Jazz Department of Hacettepe State Conservatory in 2010, the year that it opened. Here he studied with Skip Gailes, Emre Kantarı, Howard Curtis, and Adam Larrabee. In 2012, he went to the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome under the Erasmus program and later decided to continue his undergraduate studies there. He completed the 3-year undergraduate program in one year and entered the graduate program that same year with the highest grade from all the instrumentalists, and the highest degree in Italy, achieving  “110e lode,” for both his undergraduate and graduate studies.

Onur has studied with Fabio Zeppetalla, Danilo Rea, and Rosario Giullianni. During this time, he continued his active musician and teaching life both in Italy and Turkey. He has taught jazz guitar at Yaşar University in İzmir and Hacettepe State Conservatory in Ankara.