Mehmet Özbek

The Selection Committee: Yücel Paşmakçı (Chairman), Melih Duygulu, Erdal Erzincan, Zafer Gündoğdu, Doğan Hızlan, Prof. Songül Karahasanoğlu, Arif Sağ, Hasan Saltık, and Süleyman Şenel, presented the award Mehmet Özbek, for his contributions to Turkish Folk Music as a soloist, director, choir conductor, compiler, and in addition, for the efforts he has given as Istanbul Municipal Conservatory Folklore Practice Group, TRT Istanbul Radio, and TRT Music Department Presidency Branch Manager and Music Department President, and his work as the Head of the Ministry of Culture Turkish Folk Music Choir Founder and Leader, the concerts he gave and directed at home and abroad, the works he brought to the general repertoire of folk music with the works he collected and notated, and the students he trained in his entire academic life.

Serving the cultural and artistic life of our country and Turkish Folk Music and Plays in this context as an educational institution since 1984; Ege University State Turkish Music, which trains valuable academics in the field of folk music, provides the collection and archiving of folkloric/ethnographic works related to Turkish music culture data in Turkey and abroad by the collection committees it has formed and has successfully contributed to the promotion of our country in the fields of Turkish Folk Music and Plays; the service award was also given to the conservatory for these reasons.