Arda Cabaoglu, DMA

Artist, Performer, Educator, Scholar of Music & The Trumpet

Forced Misophonia: BLAST BLOW PULSE by Arda Cabaoglu at FLUX by Marina Abramović Institute (MAI)

from Forced Misophonia: BLAST, BLOW, PULSE performance at Marina Abramović & MAI exhibition at SSM
Photography by Canberk Ulusan

Arda Cabaoglu, D.M.A., is an artist, musician, music scholar, educator.  In 2016, he completed his doctoral studies in Trumpet Performance, Repertoire, and Literature at the Eastman School of Music in New York, USA. Arda Cabaoglu’s primary trumpet and music teachers have included James Thompson (USA), Håkan Hardenberger, Bo Nilsson, and Olle Sjöberg (Sweden) and Erden Bilgen (Istanbul).

As a Borusan Music Scholarship fellow, during his doctoral studies at Eastman, Cabaoglu received the opportunity to study at Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden.  This three-year period of leave to study in Sweden further deepened Cabaoglu’s interpretive emphasis and developed his methodologies relating trumpet performance to the use of one’s voice. Before Eastman, he studied at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Istanbul State Conservatory and the ITÜ—MIAM Center for Advanced Studies in Music in Istanbul.

Since 2000 until the completion of his education, Dr.Cabaoglu has appeared as soloist with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, Izmir State Symphony, Orchestra Academic Başkent, Antalya State Symphony, Istanbul State Conservatory Orchestra, Malmö Musikhögskolan Chamber Orchestra, and the Eastman Chamber Orchestra.  Recent ensembles in Rochester, NY have included Eastman Ossia, Musica Nova, Eastman Trumpet Ensemble, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Brass Guild, and Eastman Philharmonia. Currently active as a trumpet soloist, interpreter, improvisor, clinician, and chamber musician in New York City area, Cabaoglu has also been a member of European Brass Ensemble based in Stift Melk, Austria.  As an ensemble player, he has also performed with Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Échappé, MODbrass, Chamber Orchestra of New York, Oratorio Society of New York Orchestra,  Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, ensembles at The Cathedral of St.John The Divine, Orchestra of St.Ignatius Loyola, Malmö Trumpet Ensemble, the MIAM Modern Music Ensemble, and a new USA-based project ensemble called The Ritsos Project Ensemble in Samos Island and Athens, Greece. In NYC he also supported the foundation of a new orchestra project, as principal trumpet and orchestral contractor for Winds and Percussion at New Manhattan Sinfonietta. Other performances have brought him to 4 continents, including the countries of Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Australia, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, Kazakistan, Kırgızistan, and Turkey. Some of the conductors he has worked under are James Baker, Tim Weiss, Kent Tritle, Jeffrey Milarsky, Charles Hazlewood, Alexander Rahbari, Alexander Rudin, Leif Segerstam, Gürer Aykal, Sascha Goetzel, Michael Ruhling, Mark Davis Scatterday, Alparslan Ertüngealp, K. Scott Warren, Andrew Greenwood, Marek Pijarowki, Ionescu Galati, Salvatore Di Vittorio, etc. Cabaoglu has performed world premieres by composers such as Paul Moravec, Behzad Ranjbaran, Erden Bilgen, Turgut Erçetin, Dave Headlam, Recep Gül, Evan Henry, Kamran Ince, Tonia Ko, Leif Segerstam, Michael Ellison, Daniel Pesca, David Riebe, Maxwell Dulaney, Phil Taylor, Jonathan Dawe, Theo Chandler, Nathan Prillaman, Ibrahim Maalouf, Salvatore Di Vittorio and many others. Dr.Cabaoglu gives special emphasis on improvisation and multidisciplinary art by using contemporary and historical sources. His current projects include CABASI, a project collaborating with composer and improvisor Cenk Ergun. In 2018, in NYC, a collaboration with trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf, Dr.Cabaoglu has formed a special trumpet section called The Levantine Trumpets, using particularly using quarter-tone trumpets upon Maalouf's request and combining the Middle Eastern and Western styles. The section has recently performed the world premiere of Levantine Symphony No.1 by Maalouf at Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. In 2022, a work for Trumpet and Timpani was commissioned by Eastman School of Music from composer Serin Oh, as a video production for the centennial of the schools foundation, one of the finest conservatories in the world.

In February 2020, Arda Cabaoglu’s unique durational performance art project called Forced Misophonia: BLAST, BLOW, PULSE was performed by him at Sakıp Sabancı Museum (SSM) and curated by Marina Abramović Institute (MAI). As a part of Marina Abramović’s project called AKIŞ/FLUX, Cabaoglu presented his artwork, where he performed his unique work for 4.5 weeks, 8 hours a day at the SSM, in a specially designed and built project space. AKIŞ/FLUX marked a major survey of Abramović’s work and the largest project dedicated to performance art in the history of Istanbul. Cabaoglu’s work is considered to be the world's longest durational performance art project in its category, performed by a musical instrumentalist. It focuses on the presence of musical instrumentalist as the main creator, resulting as a dialogue between the audience, performer, & silence, where beyond the five senses used and discussed. The project is being prepared by the artist to be published in the near future as a book and recording.

In 2023, Trumpeter Arda Cabaoğlu premiered and recorded a new work by composer Sangbin Rhie, Caged Dream of Stuffed Ludwig for solo trumpet and percussion ensemble, in collaboration with The Contemporary Art Music Project (CAMP). CAMP commissioned this trumpet concerto with a percussion ensemble and electronics from composer Sangbin Rhie for CAMP's annual new music festival CAMPGround23.  The new trumpet concerto, Caged Dream of Stuffed Ludwig, explores unique sonorities produced by trumpet, percussions including auxiliary instruments, and different electronic samplers. Using fragments from Beethoven's works, the piece makes a commentary on the listening culture of our time. 

With a zeal for trumpet pedagogy, Cabaoglu has participated in and attended a vast listing of masterclasses and lessons with notable musicians other than his main teachers such as Maurice André, Thomas Stevens, Tristram Williams, Crispian Steele-Perkins, Raymond Mase, Fred Mills, Muvaffak “Maffy” Falay, Paul Dorsam, Vincent DiMartino, Marcus Stockhausen, Gabriele Cassone, Ibrahim Maalouf, Reinhold Friedrich, Stephen Burns, Mark Gould, Edward Carroll, Marco Blaauw, Clement Saunier, Jeroen Berwaerts, John Wallace, and Wynton Marsalis. 

He has also pursued baroque trumpet lessons with Dr. Edward Tarr in Rheinfelden, Germany, with Leif Bengtsson and Pierre Thorvald in Sweden, and Brian Shaw at Eastman. Cabaoglu has served for 3 years as instructor of secondary trumpet classes (and first ever baroque trumpet instructor) at the Eastman School of Music, for which he was nominated for a graduate teaching award in brass instruction.  

Students find Cabaoglu’s diverse and highly personalized teaching methods to be effective and inspiring.  For samples of student evaluations, please visit his "Educator" page. Cabaoglu has been a trumpet instructor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, an adjunct faculty member as the main trumpet teacher at Istanbul National Conservatory. Dr.Cabaoglu served as as assistant professor of music at The Conservatory at Maltepe University for 2.5 years between 2021-2023. In the past, Dr.Cabaoglu started his own music school called Upper East Side Music Studio, in Manhattan, New York City. Since 2019, Dr.Cabaoglu also serves as a faculty member at Camp Encore Coda, one of the oldest music camps in the USA, located in Sweden, Maine.

In 2021, Dr.Cabaoglu started to serve as Vice President of the Board of Turkey for the World Trumpet Society, as one of the faculty members of internationally renowned teachers and performers , dedicated to helping aspiring musicians develop technical skills, interpretive expertise, and individual artistry at the highest level of excellence. Dr.Cabaoglu also been an active member and actively attending academic conferences and symposiums by International Trumpet Guild, Historic Brass Society, The American Musicological Society, and The College Music Society. Dr.Cabaoglu has attended Center for Advanced Studies in Music at Chosen Vale Trumpet Seminar for 3 summers, the finest trumpet summit in the world.

Cabaoglu has won awards in international competitions such as the Grand Valley State University International Trumpet Seminar and Solo Trumpet Competition (2nd prize with no 1st prize awarded, 2008), the National Trumpet Competition of Başkent University (1st Prize, 2005), the Lions European Music Prize for Trumpet (Turkish National Winner, 2005), and the Turkish Culture Ministry National Trumpet Competition (2nd Prize, 2000). In 2017, Cabaoglu also been served as a jury member at the Lions European Music Prize, Trumpet Competition. In 2021, a live recording at Carnegie Hall, where Cabaoglu served as an orchestra member under Kent Tritle and Oratorio Society of New York was recently nominated for a Grammy Award.

Arda Cabaoglu has been performing on primarily Yamaha Trumpets designed in collaboration with by Bob Malone and Yamaha Corp. Hamamatsu, Japan, as well as trumpets made by Vincent Bach (Elkhart IN), Renold Schilke (Chicago, IL), Henri Selmer (Paris), and also custom made 3 Martin Committee Trumpets made in late 1940s and early 1950s. Trumpet mouthpieces made by Vincent Bach (Mt.Vernon NY), Toshi Kameyama. His trumpet technician has been Wayne Tanabe at Yamaha Artist Services (YASI) New York City since 2009. Dr.Cabaoglu also plays on Rainer Egger’s (Switzerland) baroque and natural trumpets.

In 2024, Dr.Cabaoglu is conducting a global solo trumpet workshop for composers. This project is called UNMUTE IT!. It’s a project under The Contemporary Art Music Project (CAMP). As a CAMP performer, Dr.Cabaoglu premiers new music for trumpet in solo and chamber settings, annually in March at CAMPGround New Music Festival. Please click here for more information for CAMPGround.

EDUCATION 

from Forced Misophonia: BLAST, BLOW, PULSE performance at Marina Abramović & MAI exhibition at SSM Photography by Canberk Ulusan

from Forced Misophonia: BLAST, BLOW, PULSE performance at Marina Abramović & MAI exhibition at SSM
Photography by Canberk Ulusan

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