BURAK BEŞİR
Flute Recital
“PASSION”
Album Release Concert, Boston
Burak Beşir, flute
Rina Kohmoto, piano
“Passion” is the recipient of Outstanding Achievement Award from Global Music Awards (Nov. 2017)
“Passion is the collaboration of beautiful music with wonderful people. Passion is the music of love and romance from elegant tangos to opera to sounds, melodies from parts of the world to where I was born. It is great pleasure to collaborate with legendary Flutist Jim Walker in three pieces and Sonya Belousova, on Piano in this album.” – Burak Beşir
BURAK BEŞİR, flute
 Internationally acclaimed and award winning flutist, composer and producer Burak Beşir was born in Cyprus. He received his early classical music education in Ankara State Conservatory, one of the best classical music education schools in Turkey, and graduated with distinction. He continued his music career in the UK. He received his master’s degree as a flute soloist at The Royal Scottish Academy in Scotland, studying with David Nicholson. He was one of the two students among 90 applicants who were accepted to the program.
In 2003 Burak Beşir received prestigious UK Young Concert Artist Award which gave him the opportunity to give many concerts and recitals, performing at the legendary Wigmore Hall Concert Hall for his award receipt concert. Throughout his music career in the UK, he had the opportunity to work and collaborate with the world renowned Flutists like William Bennett, Wissam Boustany and Robert Dick.
Burak Beşir took the legendary Flutist Sir James Galway’s attention at a flute workshop that he
attended. This gave him the opportunity to study with Sir James Galway over the years. As his protégée and mentor Sir James supported Burak throughout his career. As a guest artist he performs at the Galway Flute Conventions, and the Galway Flute Choir at the convention performs his flute choir arrangements.
Burak Beşir has held Principal and Second Chair Flute in the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet and at the
Istanbul Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra from 2003 to 2008.
In 2008 Burak received scholarship from Berklee College of Music’s “World Scholarship Program” which led him to move to America. He received Contemporary Writing and Production degree at Berklee and his focus switched to composing in addition to his solo and orchestral career.
During his years at the East Coast, Burak was the Principal Flute at the Berklee Contemporary Symphony and at the Video Game Orchestra, VGP (rockestra project that consists of rock band, orchestra and choir performing epic arrangements of music from timeless video games).
He received Arif Mardin Achievement and Best Concerto Performer Awards from Berklee College of Music and represented Berklee at the 5th Conservatory Project and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
In 2012 Burak moved to Los Angeles with his family where he continues his career as performer,
recording artist, educator and composer.
In 2014 Burak performed at the very first live concert of the 86th Oscar Concert at the UCLA Royce Hall. The concert featured all five nominated original scores, conducted by their composers including The Book Thief by John Williams, Gravity by Steven Price , Her by William Butler- Owen Pallet, Saving Mr. Banks Thomas Newman and Philomena by Alexandra Desplat.
Burak Beşir performed many times at the prestigious National Flute Association Conventions in Charlotte, Las Vegas and Chicago. Here he performed his original compositions and arrangements with his trio, The World Flute Ensemble. As the Music Director, Burak launches and performs at the International Committee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Benefit Balls at the Dorothy Chandler’s Pavilion.
Burak is composing music for movies, TV shows, documentaries and commercials . As a composer
and recording artist Burak’s most recent works are appearing in TV shows on CW, TeleMundo, Hallmark, NBC, TRT (Turkish Radio and TV) , CNN Turk and BRT.
He has a very rich collection of ethnic instruments that includes Turkish Ney, Düdük, Zurna, Chinese and Indian flutes, and many others.
Burak’s Flute Choir Arrangement for Smetana’s Moldau is published through Italian publisher Vigor Music in July 2017.
In June 2017, Burak released his first flute- piano album “Passion” through American recording
company Albany Records. The album received Outstanding Achievement Award from Global Music Awards in November 2017.
RINA KOHMOTO, piano
 Japanese pianist Rina Kohmoto has appeared as a distinguished collaborative artist and versatile musician. Her major experiences include CID-UNESCO World Dance Congress 2014 in Tokyo where she collaborated with dance and visual effects, Tokyo Eco-life Fair 2015 held by the Ministry of Environment of Japan, and chamber music performances in the annual concert held by TV Asahi, a major Japanese TV company, from 2010 to 2014. She has also participated in numerous recordings published from major labels in Japan as a pianist, vocalist and lyric writer.
Born in Naoshima Japan, Rina began playing the piano at the age of three and soon started taking classical piano lesson where she established her solid piano technique. It was her passion and eagerness to learn new musical concepts and improve as a musician that brought her to Berklee College of Music in 2015 to study jazz composition and world music. Soon after entering Berklee, Rina won the competition for Emanuel Zambelli Scholarship Award and held a solo piano recital as part of Berklee Piano Week. She has been recognized as a highly-skilled pianist and involved in a number of projects, recordings and concerts including those held at Berklee Performance Center. She continues to be listed on Dean's list and has also received the Contemporary Classical Performance Award and Jazz Composition Achievement Award from Berklee.
Currently she is working as an active pianist, keyboardist and composer based in the New England area.
Co-presented with Boston University Howard Thurman Center |
