Burak Uckun

Singer, composer and arranger living in Istanbul/Turkey. Composing my own songs. Have one -group album- two -solo- albums released in Turkey. Love snow, riding motorbike, watching DVD and of course music and singing. Also love travelling and technology.

Biography:

Burak Uckun - Biography
www.burakuckun.com
Burak performed live at many discos, bars, night clubs and hotels in Turkey and North Cyprus where he got his stage experience up until today. He was the lead vocal and guitarist of his band Jazz Mania during his civil engineering education in Eastern Mediterranean University -Cyprus. He had his first prize in a song contest in N. Cyrprus, during his university education in 1995.

After completion of his degree he returned to Izmir-Turkey and he worked as a civil engineer for a year. The passion of music forced him to come to Istanbul to involve in the music sector. In order to find a path into the music sector in Istanbul, he attended The Golden Piegon Song Contest in Kusadasi (Kusadasi Altin Guvercin Sarki Yarismasi) which is the most important national song contest in Turkey. He won all three prizes; the 1st prize, the best lyricist special award with his lyrics of the song and also the best singer award in this contest, in 1996. Burak Uckun also managed to win the 1st prize and best singer award for the second time in the same important song contest. (1996 and 2003).

After the success in 1996 in the song contest, he moved to Istanbul and started for his masters education in Istanbul University. While his education, he did not give up singing and sang at the night clubs located in Istanbul.

He won many prizes in several national and international song contests;
2003 Kusadasi Golden Peagon National Song Contest, 1.st prize.
2003 Kusadasi Golden Peagon National Song Contest, Best Singer award.
1998 16th Cesme International Song Contest, representing Turkey, 3.rd prize.
1998 Turkish Republics Cultural Festival Song Contest, representing Turkey, 2.nd prize.
1997 Lithuania - Vilnius 97 International Song Contest, representing Turkey, F.I.D.O.F The International Federation of Festival Organizations special prize. (Most Talented Young Artist Award)
1996 Kazakhistan (Alma Ati) Asia Dausy - Voice of Asia International Song Contest representing Turkey, 3. rd prize among 24 European and Asian countries .
1996 Kusadasi Golden Peagon National Song Contest, 1.st prize.
1996 Kusadasi Golden Peagon National Song Contest, Best Performer award.
1996 Kusadasi Golden Peagon National Song Contest, Best Lyricist award.
1996 Pamukkale National Song Contest, Pamukkale Special Award".
1995 Cyprus - Kyrenia Golden Olive International Song Contest 3.rd prize.

Burak likes sports, especially snow skiing and swimming. He has many medals in swimming, snow skiing and basketball.

He also performed as the back-vocalist of Nukhet Duru - one of the most popular singers in Turkey- during his masters education. In this period, he took part in the musical theatre -Cahide- featuring Nukhet Duru and Tamer Karadagli (officer in Politiki Kouzina directed by Tassos Boulmetis) in 100 shows with his voice.

In year 2000, he was requested to perform a song of the famous Turkish composer Selmi Andak (was born in 1921) in the 60th year respect album of this composer. Upon Selmi Andak's request, 13 singers such as Sezen Aksu, Ozdemir Erdogan and Zerrin Ozer performed one of Selmi Andak's songs in the album. Burak also performed a song of the famous composer in this special 60th year respect album. He was requested by the composer to take part in this project because he was noticed and admired by Selmi Andak in one of the song contests he attended.

His first album experience was with a rock group project (DESTAN) . He participated in the group with his compositions and guitar. (an Anatolian Rock Group project.) This album was released in 1999 and sold 500.000 copies. After this first experience, he decided to quit the group to make an album of his own music taste. Because he was actually a singer and had many song contest awards. So he didnt want to just play the guitar in a rock band but wanted to share his compositions and his music with the audience.

In 2000, Burak signed a 3 years contract with Kiss Music, for his first solo album (Ilk Askim). His recent album is -Sonsuza Kadar- is released in 2006.

His second solo album "Sonsuza Kadar" (Forever) is successfully on the market now (Since March - 2006).

Burak can play guitar and keyboard. He also composes songs. His previously released first solo album (Ilk Askim) included 11 songs and 8 of them were Burak's compositions. And in this most recent album -Sonsuza Kadar (Forever), he has also his compositions besides Walter Schirnik's compositions and the ones they created together with Walter Schirnik..

ALBUM INFO (SONSUZA KADAR - Forever)

The Mixing and Mastering of the album is made in Switzerland by Bernie Staub who is the owner of Avalon Music in Switzerland. Bernie Staub is a world famous tonmeister who also made mixings, masterings and arrangements for a lot of world famous productions like Tina Turner, Janet Jackson, Janet Jackson Backstreet Boys, N-SYNC, Jose Carreras, Nena, The Harlem Voices, Bonnie Tyler, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The famous string group G-Strings performed in two songs for the album. Some examples of G-Strings live and studio partners include: Chaka Khan, Ray Charles, Bobby Mc Ferrin, Randy Crawford, Gloria Estefan, Jon Lord (Deep Purple), Josè Carreras. The G-Strings have cast aside the boundaries set by classical music. Since its foundation in 1993 the quintet has systematically played against the grain of established ways of listening.

Most of the arrangements are made by Walter Schirnik - Germany. Walter is accepted to Franz Liszt Conservatory Weimar with a scholarship. He graduated from the conservatory with titles of piyanist and orchestra chief. He released a single named -Let It Rain- with a two people group named -in2deep- and they remained in the 1 st place in the German Music Charts for weeks. He is also the composer of the theme music of the rewarded cinema movie -Vacuum-. (year 2004-Germany) He is also the owner of the -studio HitBay- in Germany.

The players of the live instrument recordings made in Turkey are also top class talented Turkish musicians. As an example, Ismail Soyberk is a very successful bass player who also worked with world famous musicians like Aziza Mustapha Zadeh and Joan Baez.

BURAK UCKUN - The Album (Sonsuza Kadar)
Album Live Instruments Information:

Strings:
Stefan Pintev / G-Strings: ( http://www.gstrings.de ) (Switzerland)
Ilyas Tetik (Kem-Pa) (Istanbul)
Guitars:
Uwe Metzler (Germany)
Nicolai Sukup: Acoustic Guitar (Germany)
Erdinc Senyaylar (Istanbul)
Serhan Yasdiman (Istanbul)
Drums : Thomas Simmerl (Germany)
Bas Guitar: Ismail Soyberk (Istanbul)
Back Vocals:
Christoph Rau (Germany)
Suzan Saritas (Germany)
Tuba Onal (Istanbul)
Mixing and Editing :
Bernie Staub ( http://www.avalon-music.ch ) (Avalon Music- Switzerland)
Candar Koker (Studio Maestro) (Istanbul)
Arrangers:
Walter Schirnik, (Germany), Selim Caldiran (Istanbul) and Burak Uckun.