A life in music
About
“Almost Twice a Doctor”: a completed medical degree, and an unfinished doctorate in composition. Music continued between the two.
Çağlayan Yıldız graduated from medical school in 1990. That day, he chose music.
Periods
- 1966–1986 From Aydın to university Aydın, İzmir
- 1986–1990 Medicine and music İzmir, Eastern Europe
- 1990–1993 Bilkent and Kaş Ankara, Kaş
- 1993–2000 Silence, fourths, India Kaş, İstanbul, India
- 2000–2006 The Netherlands Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam
- 2006–2011 Antalya and new work Antalya
- 2011–2017 From İstanbul back to Kaş İstanbul, Ankara, Kaş
- 2017–2021 Puja: studio, stage, teaching Antalya
- 2021– Music, software, atlases Antalya
Playing, making, listening
He plays guitar and bass, fretted and fretless instruments, eight-string guitar, guitar synthesizer and electronics. Composition, arranging, improvisation and production have taken him through jazz, contemporary music, electronic music, pop and rock, film and theatre.
The recordings keep their own account of these encounters. The album archive includes the music and its credits. Albums.
Learning, then teaching
His 2006 master’s thesis, “Standard Guitar Tuning: A Historical Mistake?”, grew out of playing in all-fourths tuning. That question continues in his teaching, the book and String Logic.
He has taught privately since 1986 and in classrooms and workshops in Turkey and the Netherlands. Jazz Harmony Sundays and Rhythm Thursdays became places to work through ideas together. “Çok Sıkıcı Müzik Dersleri” and “Bass Layn - Pes Doğrusu” remain here as a teaching archive.
Puja
In 2017 he took over Karakedi Stüdyo in Antalya, which became Puja Studio & Musicafé, and founded Puja Music Productions. Recording, rehearsal, conversation and teaching shared a place. Building music education tools is a continuation of that work: giving musical ideas a form someone can use.
His work under Puja Music Productions also includes MathRonome, AllGoRhythmics, Aquadrum Pro and Elvin’s Numbers.
Puja Music Productions · pujamusic.com
Words, radio, photographs
He has written for Jazz Dergisi, Gitar Dergisi and Drum & Bass Dergisi. For TRT Radyo 3, he prepared and presented “Çalgıç” and “Kulak İzi”, including their audio editing. In 2016 he edited the Turkish translation of Kenny Werner’s Effortless Mastery, published as Zahmetsiz Ustalık.
He also worked as a professional diver in Kaş. “Onlar Bize Hep Bakıyor”, his tree photographs, became a first solo exhibition in 2016. Journeys to India in 1994 and 1996, music, philosophy and the idea of flow are part of the same life.
Biographical notes
Born in Aydın in 1966; raised in İzmir from 1970. Based in Antalya since 2006, with years of study and work in İstanbul.
Education
Aegean University Medical Faculty, MD, 1990. He entered Bilkent’s Jazz Department on a full scholarship in 1991 and left after two years. At Amsterdam Conservatory (2000–2002), he studied jazz guitar, bass, composition and arranging. Utrecht Conservatory: Bachelor in Composition, cum laude, 2004; Master in Composition, 2006. Utrecht University, KMT-EMMA, 2006.
He began doctoral studies in composition at Bilkent in 2012 and transferred to İTÜ MIAM in 2013. He left academia without completing the doctorate.
Classrooms and ensembles
Teaching included Akademi İstanbul (1998–99), Amsterdam Muziekschool Aslan (2001–06), Rotterdam and Utrecht workshops (2005–06), Antalya Güzel Sanatlar (2011), İstanbul Bilgi University (2011–12) and Düşler Akademisi (2015–16).
He founded Akra Jazz Band in 2017 and Akra Big Band in 2019, and served as music director at 251SOUL from 2018 until June 2024. Collections Orchestra, an ensemble he led, appeared in The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, filmed in Antalya in 2023 and released in 2024.