Hande Cangökçe

Flute & Guitar

Friday, February 20, 2026
7:30 pm EST
WPAC Recital Hall

$20 general, $15 senior/FIU faculty, staff, & alumni, $5 student

is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price: $100 general, $70 senior/FIU faculty, staff, & alumni, $30 student

Since 2000, Turkish guitarist Hande Cangökçe has taken the stage as soloist in many national and international festivals, and  premiered many works. She has been guest artist of many TV and Radio programs with her classical guitar recordings and interviews and has given live performances. Her works have appeared in the press, especially in leading classical music magazines, and in classical music albums. In addition to performing, Cangökçe continues to teach masterclasses, workshops and seminars at international festivals.

Cangökçe earned her bachelor’s, master’s and artistic proficiency degrees in Bekir Küçükay’s class at the Istanbul University State Conservatory and received the title of Associate Professor in 2017 and Professorship in 2022. She was accepted to the guitar program for soloists at the Strasbourg Académie Supérieure de Musique Conservatory in France, practicing; classical guitar with Susana Prieto and Baroque music interpretation, Theorbo and continuo with Yasunori Imamura. During her studies, she had the opportunity to work with world-renowned virtuosos such as Zoran Dugic, Lily Afshar, Marco Socias, Liviu Georgescu, Bosko Radojkovic, Hopkinson Smith, Carlo Marchione, Tilmann Hoppstock, Lorenzo Micheli, and received invitations from many conservatories in Europe.

The first album Cangökçe took part is; “5 Guitar Pieces” published by Yıldız Technical University. She recorded the premiere performances of Turkish composers for her second album “The Guitar Meeting” (labeled and distributed by Bilkent- Cagsav). She recorded performance videos for Bekir Küçükay’s “Guitar Method for Children” DVD. (Bemol Music). The Third album; “Turkish Guitar Concertos” were also released in collaboration with Bilkent – Cagsav. In this project, the artist recorded a concerto under the direction of maestro Alessandro Cedrone and Orchestra Academic Baskent.

After practicing theorbo in France, Cangökçe started to create a new repertoire with Archlute, another baroque lute in 2018. She was the first lutist to bring and introduce this instrument to Türkiye. She has since been performing solo & duo works for voice and lute with contratenor Kaan Buldular as Duo Lamente. They concertize internationally and represent Türkiye in this field with a special repertoire ranging from the Baroque period to Ottoman Palace music. In addition to the artist’s duo project, she is one of the member artists of Istanbul Baroque, founded and directed by Prof. Leyla Pınar. She continues to give concerts as a guest artist with Baroque music ensembles such as Baroque Diagonal, Camerata Baroque, D’accordo Ansambl, Aromsa Orchestra and Istanbul State Opera and Ballet.

In addition to being a concertizing soloist, Cangökçe received a full professorship in 2022, and she has become a member of the university executive board at the Istanbul Topkapi University where she continues her academic career as the founder and director of the Music Department.