Ceren’s story, as we know her, was molded with a picture she saw adorning the cover of a notebook, a picture of a girl playing the harp. Love for the harp and music, from way back then, when she saw that picture, took little Ceren on a journey; from her prep year in the Istanbul University State Conservatory to her graduate studies in Indiana University, extending well into Anadolu University as a faculty member.

Hers was a quest to shape her students like unique and delicate flowers in all aspects, a life dotted with performances both in Turkey and abroad, a life which was wholeheartedly dedicated to the harp…Filled with color, filled with love of music and arts…

It has been 15 years since Ceren’s passion for the harp strings came to a regrettable end when she lost her life in a tragic plane crash in the stormy skies above the Atlantic. Today, her students whom Ceren molded into bright young musicians at the Harp Department – a department she had established at Anadolu University – have become exemplary professional harpists who continue to carry the torch she had lit.

During her tenure at the university, Ceren attended countless events at national and international level, with her students. Not only were these events invaluable in terms of experience for her students, but they also garnered great admiration from the wider harp fraternity as well. Ceren always cared very much for the impact of such events on the formative years of young musicians. Her drive for pushing the limits of the harp, especially in the form of fusing the melodies of Anatolia with the sounds of her harp, was unrelenting. Because of her determination, creativity, and everlasting legacy, dozens of songs and compositions by notable artists have been dedicated to the humble musician Ceren was, at a time such dedications are a becoming rarity.

Ten years after her passing, Ceren’s family, artists and students who are her extended family, wished to carry on Ceren’s mission. With eternal love for the harp and music, the first ‘Ceren Necipoglu Istanbul International Harp Festival’ was born in 2020. We are now proudly announcing the second festival, which will take place in 2025.

Through this festival Ceren’s precious ideals will continue to live on in Istanbul, a city built on two continents, which has been the beating heart of arts and culture for centuries.

May the love of arts and music flourish with the youth.