Celil Refik Kaya is a contemporary guitarist and composer in the great tradition of artists who have created their own unique contribution to the repertoire. Sonata no.1 is characterised by various stylistic resemblances which include South and North American composers, jazz chord progressions, French impressionism and Spanish folk music, whereas the Sonatina expresses more personal emotions. Kaya’s Turkish background can be heard in his variations on the folk song Yavuz Geliyor Yavuz, which, like the Sketches, has its origins in art and music close to the composer’s heart.

Celil Refik Kaya has been a Naxos recording artist for some years now, and this new recording of his own guitar music joins acclaimed releases of works by other composers. Kaya’s first recording, Jorge Morel: Guitar Music (8573514) was critically acclaimed in the American Record Guide in performances that are ‘just perfect’, with MusicWeb International adding that ‘the playing is splendid in every sense by one of the outstanding young virtuosos of the guitar’.

Kaya has also made acclaimed recordings for Naxos of works by Carlo Domeniconi (8573675 and 8574240), with ‘music-making at its highest level from a consummately creative composer and an intrepid and extremely capable performer’ (American Record Guide) and Agustín Barrios Mangoré (8573898).

Since his concert debut at the age of six, Turkish American guitarist and composer Dr Celil Refik Kaya has received many high accolades. He was the youngest contestant to win First Prize in the 2012 JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition, and is a prizewinner of international guitar competitions across Europe and the US. In 2017 he was named Rising Young Musician of the Year by the Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul and awarded a prestigious fellowship from Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks. Dr Kaya has performed in concert halls and festivals, giving solo performances at Carnegie Hall, Het Concertgebouw, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and Ankara International Music Festival among others, and numerous radio broadcasts and concert performances throughout the United States, Europe and Turkey.