Biography
Dr. Şőlen Dikener is a professor of music at the School of Music of Marshall University. He has been teaching cello, double bass, chamber music, music appreciation, and critical thinking classes since 2002. A winner of the Distinguished Artist and Scholar Award (2007) at Marshall, Dr. Dikener published an internationally renowned cello method book, “Cello Warm-Up!” that received critical acclaim from The Strad magazine. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he also directs the Woodlands Chamber Series in Huntington, WV, an annual concert organization he founded and currently serving as its music director. He directed the Music Alive Chamber Music Series for over a decade in collaboration with Frist Presbyterian and Fifth Avenue Baptist Churches. Every summer, he returns to his native Turkey and teaches at the summer music school; Datca Cello Academy.
As a chamber musician, he regularly performs with Capital Trio (based at SUNY Albany) and Millefiori Trio (based at Marshall University). A dedicated recording artist, Dr. Dikener published eight solo and chamber music albums, some featuring world premiere works by contemporary composers A. Saygun, I. Usmanbas, I. Baran, N.K. Akses, C.R. Rey, P. Tortelier, M. Zanter, W. Matthews, D. Walther as well as O. Schoeck and more. His latest album, “My Beautiful Star” is published in 2021 by Centaur Records, featuring vocal transcriptions for cello and piano, accompanied by Yesim Altas-Dikener. He was also a recipient of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation emerging artist grant for CD production. As a performing artist he collaborated on stage with Shanghai Quartet, pianists Adam Newman, Ozgur Aydin, Yefim Bronfman, Johan Botes, Duncan Cumming and, performed on such venues as Cambridge University, Harvard University, Princeton University, Boston Athenaeum, Williams College among others.
Dr. Dikener studied cello with legendary Paul Tortelier, Prof. Tobias Kuhne, Frieder Lenz, Dennis Parker, Owen Carman, and chamber music with Cleveland Quartet and Michel Lethiec.