Rasih Öztürk 
Composer - Guitarist - Educator - Producer

ABOUT ​

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Rasih Öztürk is Turkish composer, producer, guitarist and educator.

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He studied primary school and high-school in Izmir, Turkey. He didn't officially or privately take any music lessons until he started his studies in the USA but in high-school, it was his life-changing opportunity to meet his music teacher Mustafa Kamçıcı. Rasih spent almost every day with him during his high-school years and he has always been a life mentor for Rasih. Another life changing moment for Rasih was when he met Anıl Altınsoy who is a Composition and Conducting faculty at Dokuz Eylül University State Conservatory and like an older brother to Rasih.

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Anıl introduced him to classical composition, orchestration and conducting. He has always shared his knowledge generously with Rasih like an older brother. They are still working on lots of projects together and Rasih believes that he will always have a lot more to learn from Anıl.

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After he graduated from high school, he was accepted and received some scholarships from various institutions around the USA such as Berklee College of Music, Los Angeles College of Music, the Collective School of Music NY and McNally Smith College of Music. Eventually, he decided to start his studies at McNally Smith in 2016. 
 

At McNally Smith, he tested out of core classes and some of the guitar classes in his first semester and privately studied:

Guitar with Christopher Olson & Mike Salow., Piano with Sean Turner, Composing for Media with Mark Henderson, Classical/ Modern Harmony - Theory, Composition with Jay Fuchs, also took classes such as conducting with Scott Agster, songwriting with Peter Johnson, arranging with Peter Whitman, music technology with Bryan Forrester.

He met Kavyesh Kaviraj (Keys), Kenny Watson (Drums) and Drew Stinson (Bass) in his ensemble class and they formed their jazz band "Jazz international".

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After he moved back to Turkey due to the unexpected closure of McNally Smith in 2017, Rasih started writing music theory books and guitar methods, arranging and producing music for songwriters, performing with his band Rasih Ozturk Quartet, rock/ pop band Kaygı and  singer/songwriter, composer Nisa Benna. He also kept teaching composition, guitar and music theory lessons to his Turkish students and his students were accepted to many institutions around the world.

 

Remarkably, just like Rasih, his composition student Nisa Benna was awarded the Arif Mardin Scholarship in 2022 as well as one of his composition students Yusuf Akarslan who was awarded a full tutition scholarship.

 

Rasih released his EP "Early Bird" in December 2020 and his single "I Am the Real Free" featuring Kavyesh Kaviraj (piano), Akash Iyer (Voice) in August 2021.

 

Rasih has also been working with Sina Kologlu who is one of the founders of his favorite childhood rock bands Bulutsuzluk Özlemi, on his latest single "Mehvibe" as an arranger, producer and session player. 

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Rasih moved back to the USA in 2022 to attend Aspire: Five Week Program at Berklee College of Music as an Arif Mardin Scholarship Receipent. Currently, he received his Full Tuition Scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music as a full time student and he is getting prepared to graduate in his fifth semester as a Jazz Composition major in May, 2025.

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At Berklee, he studied with some of Berklee's legendary jazz/traditional composition and guitar faculty:

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Core Harmony, Advanced Harmonic Concepts and Post-bop Jazz Composition Steve Rochinski who has changed Rasih's life with his approach to harmony and composition which has been deeply influential to him,

Guitar with Sal Di Fusco and Lauren Passarelli, Jon Wheatley,

Jazz Composition with Greg Hopkins, Randy Pingrey, Brian Landrus & Jeff Classeen.

Arranging with Nicholas Urie, Big Band arranging with Randy Pingrey, Jazz History with Leon Lee Dorsey,

Traditional Composition and Scoring for Strings with Arnold Friedman, program music with Dennis Leclaire.

Scoring & Arranging for Wind Ensemble with Amparo Edo

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