Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol

Grammy nominated composer and DownBeat Magazine’s September 2016 Editor’s pick Jazz pianist Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol has been praised by critics all over the world for his unique, pluralist, multicultural and energetic musical voice, as both composer and performer. An active scholar, a Harvard CMES fellow (2013-15) and multi-instrumentalist, Sanlıkol, who hails from Cyprus and Turkey, is currently a faculty member at New England Conservatory’s Music History/Musicology Department and is co-director of New England Conservatory’s Intercultural Institute.

Mehmet composed for, performed and toured with international stars and ensembles such as Anat Cohen, Dave Liebman, Tiger Okoshi, Antonio Sanchez, Bob Brookmeyer, Esperanza Spalding, Erkan Oğur, Brenna MacCrimmon, The Boston Camerata and American Composers Orchestra at numerous prestigious International Music Festivals and venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Blue Note Jazz club in New York. Sanlıkol actively delivers papers and talks at academic conferences such as International Conference on Analytical Approaches to World Music, Society for Ethnomusicology and Sohbet-i Osmaniye series at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His book, entitled The Musician Mehters, about the organization and the music of the Ottoman Janissary Bands has been published during 2011 in English by The ISIS press and in Turkish by Yapı Kredi Yayınları.