Ilgın Ülkü (*1993) is a Turkish composer and violinist. She studied violin under Nuri Iyicil and Pelin Halkacı Akın in Istanbul, Katrin Scholz in Bremen, and Andrej Bielow and Krzysztof Węgrzyn in Hannover; and studied composition under Hasan Uçarsu, Özkan Manav and Mehmet Nemutlu in Istanbul, and Gordon Williamson, Joachim Heintz in Hannover.
In her music, she endeavours to defy an instrument’s natural timbre, and expose the basic sound. The listener’s experience of improvisation also plays an important role in her music, at her concerts, and her compositional process often begins with improvisations. To her, a composition is an improvisation that has been extended over time.
In 2019 she was invited as a violinist to the Lucern Festival Academy and West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. As a performer, she believes that it is important to perform contemporary music, and has performed with the Ensemble Quarks, Oh-Ton Ensemble, Asambura Ensemble, Ur-Werk Ensemble, Radiant8 Ensemble and others.
Her compositions have been performed in Germany at the Berliner Philharmonie by Konsonanz Chamber Ensemble, by Ensemble Ascolta, Trio Comet, Ensemble Mosaik, at the Eurasia Festival by Chamber Ensemble Hannover, by musica assoluta at the Klangbrücken Festival in Hannover and at the NDR Hannover by Ensemble Quarks, in Turkey at the Sound Travel Festival in Istanbul and in Poland by musica assoluta at Philharmonie Zielona Góra and in Aula Nova Poznań.
She was invited to the Musik 21 Niedersachsen Workshop for Young Composers 2021 as a lecturer and artistic director, at the same festival she performed new pieces by young composers with the Konsonanz Quartet. Several times she was invited to the Ayvalık International Music Festival as a soloist. In 2023 she gave a seminar in composers forum at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.
In 2021 she made it to the final round of the “International Call for Commissions” as a part of the Lucerne Forward Festival. In 2022 she won a scholarship of “Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur”.
She is currently undertaking a PhD in violin at the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and she is founder, violonist of Ensemble Quarks.