Ceren Türkmenoğlu is a violinist and composer born in 1989 in Ankara. She studied violin at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, and completed her master’s degree in violin performance at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Boston. Her violin teachers included Cengiz Özkök, Carolin Widmann, Ellen Jewett, Cihat Aşkın, and Jesse Mills.

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In addition to the violin, she performs on the rebab, bendir, and various instruments from different musical traditions. Her work brings together Western classical music with Anatolian and global traditions, forming a distinctive musical language.

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She worked in Ankara State Opera and Ballet Orchestra and later in Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra. In Boston, she played with several ensembles, including the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. She collaborated with the Silk Road Ensemble, founded by Yo-Yo Ma, and appeared at events such as Harvard’s Arts First Festival.

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With her project “Music from Where the Sun Rises,” which explores Turkish music from a historical perspective, she received two consecutive years of project support from The Boston Foundation and performed at Harvard, MIT, Tufts, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Through her project “Strings Around the World,” she examined musical cultures through their traditional bowed instruments and conducted research in the Republic of Tuva in 2018, later presenting her findings at ethnomusicology conferences in the United States and the United Kingdom.

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Her compositions lie at the intersection of classical, contemporary, and traditional influences. Her works are commissioned and performed by various ensembles across Turkey and Europe.