Bilen Işıktaş is a Professor of Music at the Department of Musicology at Istanbul University State Conservatory.

He writes on music and cultural policy. His main research areas include sociology of music, historical musicology, Ottoman/Turkish music, the effect of modernization on music culture, relation between Turkish and Arab music, the Frankfurt School, and popular culture. His interests include researching the concept of maqam in theoretical and historical terms as well as various problems encountered in the field of music in Turkey together with the changes from the Eastern civilization to Western civilization. He also teaches taksim [improvisational music] and Turkish music theory on his instrument.

His first book Harflerin ve Seslerin Ruhundaki Seyyahlar: Mehmet Âkif Ersoy ve Şerif Muhiddin Targan (Travelers in the Soul of Letters and Sounds: Mehmet Akif Ersoy and Şerif Muhiddin Targan) was released in 2017, followed by Peygamber’in Dâhi Torunu: Şerif Muhiddin Targan, Modernleşme, Bireyselleşme, Virtüozite [The Prodigious Descendant of the Prophet: Şerif Muhiddin Targan, Modernization, Individualization, Virtuosity], which was published in 2018. With this book, he was found worthy of the best biography award for 2018 by the Writers Union of Turkey [Türkiye Yazarlar Birliği].

His last books: 

Boğaziçi'nin Büyülü Sesi: Denizkızı Eftalya, Dönemi, Yaşamı ve Çevresi [The Magical Voice of the Bosphorus: Eftalya the Mermaid, Period, Life and Environment], İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul, 2023.

1930’lar Türkiyesi'nde Müziğin Ekonomi-Politiği Erken Cumhuriyet'in Sesleri A. Sırrı’nın Kaleminden “Kimlerdir, Ne Kazanırlar? [The Economy-Politics of Music in 1930s Turkey, The Sounds of the Early Republic, By A. Sırrı “Who Are They, What Do They Earn?”] ”, İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul, 2024.

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