Rahmi Oruç Güvenç

After completing his high school education at Kütahya High School, he graduated from the Department of Philosophy at the Faculty of Letters, Istanbul University, and wrote a philosophical book titled *Those Beloved by God – Hazrat Mevlânâ*. During this time, he continued his music education and learned to play the ud, rebab, ney, and tanbur.

After graduating from the Department of Philosophy at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Letters, he earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a focus on music therapy under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ayhan Songar at the Psychiatry Clinic of Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine,becoming the sole expert in this field.

Later, he founded the Turkish Music Research and Application Center at Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine .
During the same period, he wrote a book titled ” History of Turkish Music and Turkish Therapeutic Music” .

He was promoted to the rank of assistant professor of ethnomusicology by the Inter-University Council. After Ayhan Songar’s retirement, he left Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine and served as a faculty member in the Research and Promotion Unit for Turkish Music at the Institute of Turkish Studies at Marmara University, from which he retired.

Dr. Oruç Güvenç served as head of the “Department of Music Ethnology, Research, and Music Therapy” at Istanbul Universityfrom 1991 to 1996. This work was made possible through collaboration with Prof. Dr. İnci Enginün and, in particular, Prof. Dr. Ömer Faruk Batırel at Marmara University, as well as Prof. Dr. Ayhan Songar at Istanbul University.

In 1975, he founded the TÜMATA (Research and Promotion of Turkish Music) group. Within this group, he researches the origins and therapeutic value of Central Asian-derived Turkish music. He examines traditional Central Asian Turkish folk music, the instruments used to perform it, the costumes worn on stage, and the stage decorations and patterns, documenting and performing these elements. In conducting this work, Oruç Güvenç aims to explore these materials from social, cultural, pedagogical, therapeutic, and spiritual perspectives.

In fact, many long-forgotten instruments have been reproduced and made to produce sound in a manner fully consistent with their originals—using horsehair, coconut, wood, and various animal hides—by drawing on the illustrations found in miniatures.
Thus, a research group consisting of musicians, dancers, and singers was established to revive these traditions by using and applying the discovered historical materials exactly as described in the old methods. Today, more than 400 musical instruments—collected over time from Central Asia and Anatolia—can be seen at the TÜMATA center (Otağ Music Center) in Istanbul.

Meanwhile , Germanyhas trained countless students in the “Therapy Through Turkish Music ” courses it has established in Austria, Switzerland, and Spain. Many of the graduates are currently working at various medical, educational, and rehabilitation-focused organizations and institutes, putting what they have learned into practice.

Istanbul University, in collaboration with the school in Austria (Schule für Altorientalische Musik und Kunsttherapie, A-3924 Schloss Rosenau, Niederneustift 66), has contributed to the organization of three music therapy and ethnomusicology symposia and two ethnomusicology music festivals as part of a joint effort with the University of Vienna, and has played an active role in both the theoretical and practical aspects of these activities.

In 1992, the Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences awarded him the title of honorary professor at Fergana University. That same year , Argentina’s Academia de las Naciones honored Güvenç with an award of distinction.

Güvenç, who served as the representative in Turkey for the Munich-basedWorld Association for Psychodynamic Psychiatry (WASP), was also awarded a certificate of appreciation and achievement from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, U.S. (1993).

He received the 1996 Award for Outstanding Service in the field of music research from the Motif Folk Dance Education Association.

The Tümata group, led by Rahmi Oruç Güvenç, participated in the Song of Friendship Festivalheld in Neftekamsk, Bashkortostan, from February 24 to 28, 1998, and was awarded third place.

In 2004, he was awarded the Service to the Turkic World Award by TÜRKSAV ( Foundation of Writers and Artists of the Turkic World). In 2016, he was awarded the “Turkic World Red Apple Award.”

In collaboration with Marmara University, the Rosenau School of Music Therapy in Austria, and the University of Munich’s Higher Academy of Music, this university has launched its “Pilot Project on Therapy with Turkish Music.”

It has also launched music and movement therapy training courses in Berlin and Mannheim, Germany ; Zurich, Switzerland ; and Barcelona and Madrid , Spain .

Since 2003 , 5 “Bridge of Friendship Festivals,” 10 “From the Heart to Medicine— From Medicine to the Heart: Preparing for the Future Symposium, ” 12“Voice of Light Concerts” in 5 countries, and 4 “Rebab Tour Concerts”featuring 35 rebabs.

She served as a coordinator in the regulatory drafting process for the “General Directorate of Complementary Medicine” established within the Ministry of Health, specifically in the fields of occupational therapy and music therapy .

In addition to the projects she organized both in Turkey and abroad, she taught “Movement Therapy Through Music” courses in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Üsküdar University from 2013 to 2017, striving to prepare Turkish youth in this field.

Also, instrument museums that have recently opened across Turkey (Kırşehir Neşet Ertaş Museum and
He served as a consultant for the Turkish World Science, Culture and Art Center (Eskişehir) , personally procuring instruments and working to demonstrate how to play these instruments through example videos.

06.06.2026