Timuçin Şahin, called “A nimble guitarist and a scintillating composer.” (New York Times), and his music described as “Very impressive, visceral yet also cerebral and feisty..”(Downbeat Magazine), is an innovative composer, improviser and band-leader with an extensive discography and performance background. His creative practice blends jazz, avant-garde, experimental, and electronic components into a powerful musical statement on collective musical freedom.
His unique sound on 7 string fretless electric guitar and his emotional content in his composing made him non-comparable and his music almost impossible to categorize. Both his compositions and his playing on his double-neck guitar – his trademark – radiate an incomparable individualism. Guitar Player magazine wrote: “Sahin’s guitar playing soars in a confluence of high art and earthiness.”
He was awarded first prize at the prestigious Dutch Jazz Competition in 2001 and second prizes at the Jur Naessens Music Award in 2002, and Deloitte Jazz Award in 2006. His third record as a leader “BAFA” is widely regarded as one of the most unique and uncompromising jazz recordings of contemporary jazz of today.
Raul d’Gama Rose at All About Jazz wrote:
“The language of saxophone-guitar dialogues has never been the same after Coleman’s legendary Harmolodic duels with Pat Metheny. There is a chance that Timucin Sahin may have crossed that horizon after all, with Bafa”
His quinet album “Nothing Bad Can Happen” is recognized with an honorable mention for the best new release in 2017 in the “Best of the Year Issue” of prestigious NYC Jazz Record magazine.
Born in Turkey, Sahin immigrated to Holland as a young man to study jazz guitar and classical composition in Hilversum and Amsterdam Conservatories. Then he continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and received his PhD in composition from NYU.
Timucin Şahin has internationally performed with his own ensembles as well as artists such as Randy Brecker, Greg Osby, Robin Eubanks, Tyshawn Sorey, Cory Smythe, Thomas Morgan, Ralph Alessi, Tom Rainey, Sean Rickman, Jim Black, Kai Eckhardt, Mike Mainieri, Mark Turner, Tony Moreno, Aydin Esen, Gene Jackson, Dave Kikoski, Ernst Reizeger, John O’ Gallagher, Donny McCaslin, Reggie Washington, Loren Stillman, Ingrid Laubrock, Dan Weiss, Tom Rainey, Christopher Tordini, Mark Ferber, Matt Brewer, Concertgebouw Jazz orchestra, to name a few.
He has composed works and commissioned by Amsterdam Percussion Group, Occult Ensemble, Mivos String Quartet, Orchestra League of Composer, Timetable Percussion Ensemble,Enric Monfort Ensemble, Ere Lievonen, Verso, Amsterdam Conservatory Symphonic Orchestra, Brisk Quartet, TobeSung, Loadbang and others.
Şahin shares his concepts about his sui-generis guitar playing and composing in masterclasses and has been featured as artist in residence by universities and conservatories in the United States, Europe and Turkey. Notable engagements include: Schwartz Artist in Residence at Emory University “CompFest 2022”/ Atlanta, Composition Masterclasses at Manhattan School of Music/NYC, NYU New York (USA), Columbia University, Amsterdam Conservatory (NL), Groningen Conservatory (NL) and Gdansk Conservatory (PL).
Şahin is currently the Director of Jazz Studies in Yasar University/Turkey and has been very active in educational domains and contributes largely to the thought production in forming new ways of creative educational systems around the globe. He is the founder of “The Art of the Collective Imagination” Music Program in Turkey, which is a liberal arts program and is dedicated to bring high art to the un-privileged parts of the globe and bridges improvised music with multi disciplinary creative art forms.