Final push to help Nisan Ak raise money to complete studies and become Turkey’s third ever female orchestra conductor

Nisan Ak, aiming to be the third female orchestra conductor in Turkish history 

NEWS/GLOBAL

An appeal launched to help a bright young student complete her music studies has nearly achieved its goal. With ten days to go, Nisan Ak is less than a thousand dollars away from reaching her $15,000 target, which will help fund her Orchestral Conducting masters programme with American maestro Maurice Peress at City University in New York.

Born in 1991 and originally from Istanbul, Ak completed her high school education at Istanbul Fine Arts High School and was admitted to Istanbul Bilgi University's Composition Department as its highest scoring student, earning her a full scholarship. Coming top in her year, she graduated with full honours and moved to New York to continue her studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music under the expert tuition of Maurice Peress, whose career has seen him conduct some of the best orchestras around the world, including the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra in 1980, the Vienna State Opera in 1981, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia of Rome in 1988, and the Brno Orkester of the Czech Republic in 1997.

Ak paid for the costs of her first semester through a scholarship she was awarded by the Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Music Foundation, but needs to secure more financial support to complete her studies. Among her efforts was to launch an online fundraising campaign on indiegogo.

On asking the public for help, Ak says: “You can help me to be the third woman conductor in Turkish History by donating to my cause. The world needs more music, and Turkey needs more woman conductors. A lot more.”

If you’d like to support Nisan Ak, you can make an online donation here.