Umut Eldem is a composer, pianist, and researcher. His compositional work and research emphasize the exploration of Synesthesia as an artistic medium. He began his undergraduate studies in music at the Mimar Sinan State Conservatory in Istanbul, under the guidance of teachers Hasan Uçarsu and Mehmet Nemutlu. As an Erasmus student, he also studied for one year under the guidance of teacher Francesco Telli at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in composition, he continued his studies in Belgium and began a master's degree in composition at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp under the guidance of teachers Wim Henderickx and Luc van Hove. Here he began his postgraduate research 'The building blocks of cross-modal analytical thinking', on the applicability of Synesthesia and color as an inter-sensory musical concept.
As such, he has already lectured on his research on synesthesia, and presented his audiovisual work and installations, combining sound and color, in Belgium, Turkey, Romania, Luxembourg and Russia, among other countries. In 2020 he won the 7th Sampo Composition Competition in France. His doctoral research 'Synesthesia and Sound-Color Associations as An Interdisciplinary Metaphor', with support from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, explored ways of using Synesthesia as an interdisciplinary analysis and musical performance method.
Umut Eldem is currently a doctoral researcher at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, and musical director at the international theater company Mixed and United. He teaches classes and workshops on music history, musical analysis and audovisual design. He also plays keyboard with the music groups Starblind = Eathbound and Transport Aerian. His recent research 'The Hearing Glass: Synesthetic Correspondences in Musical Practice' aims to develop the results of his previous research into an inter-sensory theory of audiovisual art.
Associated with the RCA as a researcher.