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Suna Kan
Turkish violinist Suna Kan was born in Adana on 21 October 1936. She began to study violin at five with her father, and by nine she was playing Mozart and Viotti violin concertos with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. She studied in Ankara and then with Gabriel Bouillon at the Conservatoire de Paris.
Back in Turkey she gave concerts, accompanied by pianists Ferhunde Erkin, Gülay Uğurat and Cana Gürmen. She also toured Canada, China, Europe, Japan, Russia, South America and the USA, often performing with high profile orchestras, and collaborating with artists such as Pierre Fournier, Yehudi Menuhin, André Navarra and Frederick Riddle.
She was one of the co-founders of the TRT Ankara Chamber Orchestra in the 1970s. From 1986 she taught violin in Ankara at Bilkent University's Music and Performing Arts department.
Although she made few recordings, she performed Turkish violin concertos by Necil Kazim Akses, Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Ahmed Adnan Saygun and was very popular in Turkey, winning several awards and prizes.
Suna Kan died on 11 June 2023, aged eighty-six.