Biography
Umut
Özbek was born in Ankara, on 6th Dec.1976 . As a natural born
musician, his relation with music started then. Being the son of Mehmet
Özbek , a famous Turkish Folk Music composer, researcher, chef of a choir
and a man of letter, Umut was deeply affected by music in his early ages
and his passion and excitement increased day by day. While spending his
childhood in Ankara which he spent within folk songs, his passion of music
was also revealed with the Casio organ his father bought. It was the first
organ he ever had. In the same years, he got interested in foreign music
through his brother Murat’s influence. While going on his secondary
education, his interest in music improved considerably, and he started
working on Western music. He was about to fulfill his secondary education
when he started to produce his first recordings with Korg M1 keyboard.
Later on he decided to attend music school. When he was at his first year
at high school, he joined the exam for The Hacettepe University State
Music Academy, Department of Singing. Needless to say , he won the exam at
first rank. This was his first step towards being a professional musician.
He improved his singing, his piano and his technic during the years he got
vocal education from Assist.Prof Vagif Kerimov. Besides classical songs,
he also worked on foreign pop, pop jazz, soul, country and new age which
he was deeply interested in.
He gave opera concerts when he was at the music school. He continued his
piano studies with Dilek Burat in the same years. Since the middle of the
90s, he has performed with various groups and also done solo performances.
He has given concerts and made lobby and dinner music in various hotels.
He took walking-on parts in some theatres between the years 1997-1998. He
won the exam for Antalya State Opera by the end of 1998 and started
working as an opera singer in 1999. He acted in plays like La Traviata,
Csardas
Furstin,
Pagliacci,
Seni
Seviyorum
. However he never gave up his works of piano, compositions and
arrangements. After he had an accident in 2000, he had to be away from his
piano and his works. But he continued his works after a long period of
treatment. While making some jingles, compositions and arrangements in his
small home studio, he also worked as a pianist at the Chamber Choir of the
Antalya Opera. He worked as a stage manager at The Antalya Opera, too. He
was on the stage as a pianist with Bülent Aksu quintet in the Afyon Jazz
Festival in 2003, and Şirin Çilengir was the solo vocal of the group. He
made music for animated 3 cd’s of ‘Tonton Ali Interactive Education Set’
which was published by Üner Publications. Umut Özbek, who also made the
music for İkbal Gürpınar’s poetry album called ‘Seni Seviyorum’, goes on
his jingle, demo, recording, arrangement and composition works in Antalya
non stop.