From Aydın to university

Çağlayan Yıldız was born in Aydın on 11 July 1966 and grew up in İzmir from 1970. He graduated from Bornova Anadolu Lisesi in 1984. He expected university to offer more than classes: he wanted culture, art and philosophy to be part of everyday life. During his early years as a medical student at Ege University, he and his friends began making that environment for themselves.

He helped a group of students establish music and theatre clubs. His first summer holiday went into the paperwork. When the university converted a large, unused lecture hall into a cultural space, their activities gained a home. They set up two equipped music rooms where students working in different kinds of music could practise. A lending library of music books became another part of this shared space.

After classes on Fridays, students gathered to watch concert recordings on video cassettes. At a time when these recordings were hard to obtain, the screenings offered a chance to watch rock, jazz and classical concerts together on a large screen. Yıldız was mainly playing blues and rock, and began exploring free improvisation in this student setting. He also acted in amateur theatre and composed music for plays. Alongside medicine, university life came to include performing, composing and making room for other people to work.