Baritone CANER AKGÜN (1981) was born in Zonguldak, Turkey. He started his musical activities in 1999 in the Polyphonic Youth Choir of the Ministry of Culture and in the Chamber Choir “Alegria”. He graduated with honours in opera singing from Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory. He participated in Elio Battaglia’s master classes for the interpretation of Hugo Wolf and Gustav Mahler. Between 2006 and 2008, he continued to work with him in the master classes of the International Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg, where they also gave concerts together.
Akgün is a laureate of a number of national competitions: third prize winner of the “National Young Voices Singing Contest” in Ankara (2006); winner of the “Lied Contest” of the “Sedat -Güzin Gürel” Education and Arts Foundation, third prize winner of the “9th Siemens National Singing Competition” and one of the finalists of the Maria Kraja Competition in Tirana – Albania (2007); second prize winner of the “Competition for Young Singers” organised by the Izmir State Opera and Ballet (2008).
In 2007. Akgün joined the ensemble of the Istanbul Opera in 2007 and has also sung at the opera houses in Mersin, Izmir, Samsun and Ankara. His repertoire includes roles from classical operas such as: Ford, Rigoletto and Georges Germont from Verdi’s Falstaff, Rigoletto and La Traviata respectively; Scarpia from Puccini’s Tosca and Marcel from La Boheme; Escamillo from Bizet’s Carmen; Figaro from The Barber of Seville, Dandini from Cinderella and Poeta from Rossini’s Il Turchino di Italia; Count Almaviva from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Papageno from Die Zauberflöte, Guglielmo from Mozart’s Thus Do They All, and Don Giovanni from his opera of the same name; Dr. Malatesta from Don Pasquale and Belcore from Donizetti’s Elixir of Love; Valentin from Gounod’s Faust; and Poeta from Salieri’s First the Music, Then the Words, among others.
He has performed chamber arias by Bellini, Mahler’s Songs of the Wayfarer (in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir). He also has an extensive cantata and oratorio repertoire, which includes Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bakalov’s Missa Tango, W.A. Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, etc.
Caner Akgün has been voted the most successful singer of the young generation for the 2010-2011 season by the Semiha Berksoy Opera Foundation. He is a member of the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet as soloist and artistic director.