Pianist Renan Koen has given a piano recital in Madrid, the capital of Spain.

The event was held at Ordular Cultural Center by the Turkish Embassy in Madrid with support from Yunus Emre Institute's Madrid Branch and the Association of Friends of Music, Museums and Palaces and attended by Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Madrid Cihad Erginay, some ambassadors serving in Madrid, business people and other invitees.

During the recital that lasted for one hour and a half, Koen played works of Gideon Klein, Viktor Ullmann, Joaquin Rodrigo, Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Ali Darmar, giving information on the works she interpreted. Koen noted that she came from a Sephardic family who migrated from Spain to the Ottoman Empire about 550 years ago, and since then, Sephardic Jews have been living as Turkish citizens in peace and harmony and preserving their culture in Turkey.

Renan Koen

Pianist, composer, soprano, and music therapist. Renan Koen started her music career with the classical flute at the age of eight. Koen started to take piano lessons from composer Ali Darmar and state artist Ayşegül Sarıca at the age of 11, and graduated Nazım Acar Flute Class, the secondary section of the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University (MSU). She studied piano with Germaine Mounier in Paris between 1985 and 1986 and continued with her studies in London with pedagogue Maria Curcio and her assistant Mark Swartzentruber. In the same period, she graduated Judith Uluğ Piano Class at the MSU State Conservatory.

Whiling maintaining her piano career, she worked on composition techniques with Dr. Pieter Snapper, and on composition theories and jazz harmony with Reuben de Lautour. She also studied music therapy with Lianna Polychroniadou Prinou and later developed her own music therapy method. Between 2012 and 2013, she started to take singing lessons from soprano Ece İdil and continues to work on singing with soprano Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şebnem Ünal.