Ceren Temel, an Istanbul-based jazz singer, improviser, composer and educator, has been singing and playing music and has grown up singing folk songs that her father taught her. Her passion for music, which began with playing the songs she learned in primary school on the keyboard, grew as she learned to play the guitar. She was a member of the secondary school student choirs, where she started her first songwriting attempts, but she concentrated on her violin and piano education while she attended the Anatolian Fine Arts High School.
She began her violin and piano studies in 2004 at Kayseri Anatolian Fine Arts High School's Music Department and continued in 2008 at Gazi University's Music Education Department. She received a bachelor's degree from Gazi University and was accepted for a master's degree in the same department in 2012. She performed several concerts with the orchestra and choir while in high school and at Gazi University, several of which are listed below.
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Karlino Music Festival, Poland, 2006
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Kasdav Music Competition for high school students, in Istanbul, 2006
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In 2007, the Saarbrucken Music Festival, in Germany.
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Korofest 2010 at Boğaziçi University, İstanbul
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Festival of Choirs 2011, Çanakkale
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Orchestra Concerts at İzmir Dokuz Eylül University and Çankarı Karatekin University in 2011.
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Orchestra Concerts in 2011 with Neyzen Ercan Irmak and pianist İlyas Mirzayev
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Violin Recital at Erciyes University in 2011.
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Graduation Violin Recital at Gazi University in 2012
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Orchestra Concert with Göksel Baktagir, a Kanun player, in 2012
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The 2013 Post-Graduate Concert of the Chamber Music Education and Repertoire Class
She performed in many bands in the hard rock and blues genres while attending Gazi University. She became interested in jazz during her undergraduate studies by listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Carmen Mcrae, and Dakota Staton. She took lessons in arranging and writing children's songs as part of her music teaching studies, which piqued her interest in composition and arranging. She began arranging her favorite songs on the piano and composing songs in English, which led her to the conclusion that she had a deep creative side of music. As a result, her Master's thesis goal was to incorporate Jazz and Music Education as a first step in learning more about Jazz, which is why her thesis title was "A Study Concerning the Need for Jazz to Be Included in Any Music Education Curriculum." Her enthusiasm for jazz grew to the point that she discovered that focusing on her musical career in this direction would be more fulfilling for her. When working on her thesis in 2014, she decided to pursue a second Bachelor's degree in jazz studies as a jazz vocalist at Hacettepe University's Ankara State Conservatory Department of Jazz.
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At Hacettepe University, she began studying vocal jazz performance and improvisation with Randy Esen in 2014, as well as general vocal technique with Yildiz Ibrahimova. She also took lessons from Meltem Ege, an award-winning jazz vocalist who completed her doctorate in the United States. In July 2019, Ceren went to the "Siena Jazz Workshop," where she learned from musicians like Theo Bleckmann, Harish Raghavan, Linda Oh, Jen Shyu, Diana Torto, Stefano Battaglia, and Matt Mitchell.
Some of her works listed below
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In 2016, she joined the Istanbul Jazz Festival's Youth Jazz Contest with her band and was chosen to play at the festival's outdoor park concert.
Voice: Ceren Temel
Alto sax: Ali Erol
Trumpet: Kaan Karadavut
Piano: Kerem Onat Murat
Double bass: Gökhan Över
Drums: Burak Durman
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In September 2016 she attended legendary pianist Barry Harris's jazz workshop in Rome.
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In March 2017, Ceren won first place at the 13th Nardis Youth Jazz Vocal Contest in Istanbul.
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She performed in the Riga Jazz Stage semi-finals.
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Jazz Concert at Balıkesir University in 2018
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Bolu İzzet Baysal University Jazz Concert 2018
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Jazz Concert at the 2018 Samsun Canik International Music Festival
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She was one of six finalists and was awarded the "Public Prize" at the 2019 Riga Jazz Stage Young Vocal Contest in Latvia.
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She made contact with Cyrille Aimee and organized a workshop with her at Bahçeşehir University in Istanbul in May 2017.
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In 2018, she took part in the Cemal Reşit Rey Jazz Orchestra's "Cazda Genç Soluklar" Concert.
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She actively participated in the Siena Jazz Workshop in 2019.
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She has performed with many big bands in Turkey, including the “Turkish Land Forces Command: Turkish Harmony Stars Orchestra” and the “Naval Forces Stars Light Music and Jazz Orchestra.”
She graduated from Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory in 2019 and began working as a vocal instructor at the same university. She is also pursuing a doctorate in jazz performance at Istanbul University State Conservatory.
Ceren has taught the violin and piano in several music schools in Ankara since 2009, and has experience in the field of teaching the piano and vocals one-on-one with students of all ages, from pre-school to adults.
Among them are the following:
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"Batıkent Müzik Evi" is a music school in Batıkent
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"Akademi Sanat Evi in Kızılay
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"Fame Academi" in Ümitköy
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"Gala Kültür ve Sanat Akademisi" in Çayyolu
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"Aida Sanat" in Gaziosman Paşa, Ankara
In addition, Ceren has made progress in Orff Education, having worked at Harvard Kids in Batıkent, "Çiçek Bahçesi" Kindergarten, the METU Development Foundation(ODTÜ Geliştirme Vakfı) Private Primary School, and İlkadım English Pre School.
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Since 2016, she has been performing with her jazz project, which mostly consists of jazz standards and her own compositions and arrangements, on stage.
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She's also been working on her loop project since 2018, creating a collection of arrangements and originals in a variety of styles, including pop, rock, funk, and jazz, which she aspired to use to demonstrate her versatility during her music education studies.
She taught jazz vocal lessons at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory for three years, where she received her "Jazz Studies" diploma.
She is mostly disciplined in her teaching, singing, arranging, and composing, which she feels is necessary for a musician's professionalism to be upheld. She values jazz performance that focuses on improvisation and interpretation because it fosters imagination and self-expression.
Here you can see more of her project and gig posters.
