SELİM ATAKAN

Date of Birth: 01.12.1951
Place of Birth: London

He completed his secondary education in “Istanbul Saint-Joseph French Male High School” (1964-1968) and “Ankara Science High School” (1968-1971). In the meantime, he took music education in “Istanbul Municipal Conservatory” studying with Verda Ün.

He started his music studies when he was a student in Ankara Science High School. He earned a first (1968) and a fourth (1969) prize around Tukey in “Milliyet Newspaper Inter-High School Music Competition” with the band he started.

He worked in “Bürümcük” orchestra with Esin Afşar in his high school graduation years.

He worked as a guitarist and an arranger in Selda Bağcan’s first record work. He worked in several albums with Alpay.

He graduated from Ankara Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine in 1976 and he started his specialisation on Pathology.

He completed his Pathology specialisation in 1979.

He started the Yeni Türkü band with Derya Köroğlu and Zerrin Atakan.

He went to Notthingham and worked in “The University of Notthingham, Department of Histopathology”. Later on, he moved to London. He worked as “Registrar in Histopathology” in “Chatham All Saints Hospital”.

He came back to İstanbul in 1988 and he maintained his album and concert studies with Yeni Türkü Band for four years.

He performed concerts and worked on albums with this band be tween the years 1982 – 1992.

He started working as “Music Director” in “Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theater” in 1990. He retired from the City Theater in 2016.

He participated in concerts in and out of the country with Zülfü Livaneli and Zuhal Olcay.

Starting with 2002, he has directed songs and vocal records that took place in the dubbing studies of feature films and TV series; further, he has written Turkish lyrics for these songs in Imaj Entertainment corporate group.

In addition to the directorship, he is maintaining his job as “Creative Director”.