Ilgın Ülkü is a Turkish composer and violinist. She studied violin and composition at the University of the Arts Bremen, the University of Music, Drama and Media Hanover, and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul. In 2025, she successfully completed her Artistic Doctorate (PhD) in Violin.
In her music, she endeavors to defy an instrument’s natural timbre to expose its fundamental sound. The experience of improvisation plays a pivotal role both in her concerts and her creative process, which often begins with spontaneous exploration. For her, a composition is essentially an improvisation extended over time.
As both a performer and composer, she frequently collaborates with contemporary music ensembles such as Ensemble Quarks, the Oh-Ton Ensemble, the Asambura Ensemble, and the Radiant8 Ensemble. In 2019, she was invited to the prestigious Lucerne Festival Academy and was a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Her original compositions have been performed by renowned groups including Ensemble Ascolta, musica assoluta, Ensemble Mosaik, the Hanover Chamber Orchestra, and Kammerensemble Konsonanz across Germany, Copenhagen, Turkey, and Poland. Her works have resonated at distinguished festivals such as Randspiele Zepernick, the 55th Harzburger Musiktage, the Klangwerkstatt Berlin, the Klangbrücken Festival, the Klang Festival Copenhagen, and the Eurasia Festival.
In 2021, she served as a lecturer and artistic director for the Young Composers’ Workshop organized by Musik21 Niedersachsen. Her artistic contributions were recognized in 2022 with a scholarship from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture. A year later, she gave a seminar at the Composers’ Forum at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, and in 2024, she led an improvisation workshop at the Bremen University of the Arts.
Driven by a passion for pedagogy, she founded the Quarks Music School in 2023 to foster musical education for children, where she currently serves as director and lecturer. Since 2022, she has also led Ensemble Quarks—a collective she established—continuing to shape its vision as both a violinist and composer.