Cem Güven is a composer from Turkey/Istanbul, who currently studies with Prof, John Corigliano at the Juilliard School in New York. He graduated from Galileo Galilei Italian High School and he studied piano performance with Prof. Dr. Eser Bilgeman Şakir at the Istanbul University State Conservatory. He studied composition privately with Prof. Deniz Arat, who is in the faculty of Mimar Sinan Conservatory. He was also the youngest opera singer of Turkey. He acted in the opera “ The Turn of The Screw” by Benjamin Britten, which was organized by Süreyya Stage. He attended several music festivals such as Gümüşlük Music Festival, where he studied with the pianist Gülsin Onay and the pianist/composer Fazıl Say, Interlochen Summer Music Festival where he studied composition with Dr. Robert Brownlow and Curtis Summerfest where is studied composition with Jonathan Holland, David Ludwig and Shinuh Lee. In 2018, Cem Güven became one of the featured composers for “C4 Choir World Premiers 2018”. In 2019, his piece “Rafflesia” for string orchestra won the 2nd prize in the competition “Musica per Archi” which got sponsored by Lviv Philarmonic Society in Ukraine. Rafflesia got published by one of the most famous edition companies in Italy, which is the Aldebaran Editions. Also in 2019, Guven worked with the new opera company "Opera Elect", premiered his opera scene "The Shopper". The same year, his piece “ILERI” was premiered by The University of Texas Wind Ensemble, with the direction of the conductor Jerry Junkin. In 2020, his piece “Journey to the Dream Planet” for orchestra has won the Alblaze Records Awards and chosen to be recorded by the Royal National Scottish Orchestra. The same work also has won the 3rd prize in Orient Occident Composition Competition in Lviv, the score also will be published by Aldebaran Editions. In addition, he is the composer of a Turkish movie “Dijital Esaret” which will be in theaters and festivals in 2020. Güven recently worked with Attacca Quartet alongside with the mentorship of Caroline Shaw, his piece “Nature is a Garden” got premiered virtually as a part of Juilliard Event “What is a Garden”. In 2021, Cem will work with Juilliard Percussion Ensemble and Sydnet Contemporary Orchestra in different seasons.

Journey to the Dream Planet

This piece is about a space journey to a mysterious and heavenly place called the Dream Planet.

It starts with a very atmospheric texture against a pedal tone. In the flow of the section, additional thickening textures combine to increase tension. A three note motive which represents “hope” (to arrive to the Dream Planet) is layered within different textures, repetitiveness of it creates the feeling of reaching somewhere, however it never breaks through the abstraction of the music and it “stays in the air”. The tension increases throughout the first section. The textures intermingle with each other and become clusters of sustained sonorities. One of the elements of the piece is the use of ringing sounds, expressed with using Tubular Bells, Glockenspiel and Celesta. The climax has all the elements that are presented in the piece. In this section, the “hope” motive is finally extended into a melody played by the high brass. After that, the piece returns to its atmospheric beginning, however the tension disappears and the piece ends in a meditative, peaceful way.