Res. Asst. Mustafa Çağatay Erol

Mustafa Cagatay EROL

Mustafa Cagatay Erol was born in 1992 in Samsun, Turkey. He started playing guitar in 1999, taking pop guitar lessons from Ahmet Sabri Karatas. Later, he began his classical guitar education with Kadir Ozal in 2002. From 2006 to 2010, he continued his classical guitar education with Nihal Calik Tuncer at Samsun Ilkadım Fine Arts High School. Between 2010 and 2017, he studied with Kagan Korad and Anil Gelenler at the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at İhsan Dogramaci Bilkent University, earning an undergraduate degree. While he continued his undergraduate education, he worked as a guitar teacher at the Early Music Education Program of the same faculty for 4 years. He completed his education at the Fine Arts Institute of Ondokuz Mayis University (OMU) with a master's degree under Fatih Akbulut between 2017 and 2020, and as a proficiency in art student at the Institute of Graduate Studies at OMU.

During his education period, Erol has studied actively with numerous musicians in the masterclasses, including Antonino Maddonni, Enno Voorhorst, Vincenzo Sandro Brancaccio, Pavel Steidl, Aniello Desiderio, Nikita Koshkin, Roland Dyens, Costas Cotsiolis, Ricardo Moyano, Ozan Saritepe, Serkan Yilmaz, Soner Egesel, Bekir Kucukay, Ahmet Kanneci, Ozan Akyatan, Erdem Sokmen, Kursad Terci, Husrev Isfendiyaroglu, Hande Cangokce, Utku Ozkanoglu, Cem Kucumen, Sanem Berkalp Egesel, Serkan Agir, and Barkin Sertkaya. He performed in many organizations, including Turkey Guitar Meetings, METU Classical Guitar Festival, Bilkent New Music Days, Sesin Yolculugu (The Journey of the Sound), and ICM Intercultural Music Conference and Concerts. He collaborated with numerous conductors and composers, including Artyom Kim, Augusto Arias, Onur Turkmen, Caglayan Yildiz, Can Bekir Bilir, Aslı Kobaner, and Arda Yurdusev. Erol recorded Ceyhun Saklar's solo guitar composition Melancholic Prelude No. 1 for the 2013 album Rendezvous with Guitar: Turkish Composers and Interpreters, released in 2013. He collaborated with Kagan Korad on the album Turquan: Guitar Duos, recording the piece Goc, released in 2025.

In 2008, Erol won the "Honorable Mention Award in 14-17 Age Category" at the 1st Pera Guitar Days Competition. In 2014 and 2016, he won the "Ulvi Yucelen Best Interpretation of a Turkish Composition Award" in the 2nd and 3rd National Guitar Competitions, both of which were organized by Hacettepe University. Due to the record of the work, Melancholic Prelude No. 1, and awarded at Hacettepe University in 2014 with the same piece, Ceyhun Saklar dedicated his composition Processes, Op. 76 to Erol. Erol premiered it at Samsun on 31st March 2022.

Erol has held the position of research assistant at the Department of Piano, Harp, and Guitar at the OMU State Conservatory since 2019.