Suyla Polat was born in 2005 in İstanbul/Turkey. She started playing the guitar at the age of 4 under her father, Haşim Polat’s mentorship, with the dream of playing Romance d’Amour, an anonymous piece that she loved.
She started going to half-time conservatory in 5th grade, working with Ozan Sezener before she started her full-time music education in Bilkent Music and Performing Arts
Middle School in 8th grade (2017), and continued there until 11th grade with Kağan Korad.
In 2021, she was accepted to the Yehudi Menuhin School, studying with Richard Wright, and she is currently at Kean University, doing a double major in music performance and environmental biology and working with Celil Refik Kaya.
Suyla has also been to various guitar festivals all over the world such as Iserlohn, Istanbul, Volos, Darmstadt, and Hong Kong international guitar festivals. She has also joined the Hong Kong Guitar Symposium, and won first prize in the Ankara Guitar Competition in the age groups 26 and
under, and a shared first price in the 18 and under category.
Suyla has met and worked with masters such as Leo Brouwer, Pavel Steidl, Yamandu Costa, and Tilman Hoppstock, and has taken part in Gerald Garcia’s guitar orchestra.
The most recent event she has been a part of is an International Young Musicians Project operated by Kotone Ozaki, where she and her 5 friends from YMS raised money through crowdfunding and a concert to have a Japan
concert tour. They gave 4 concerts in Tokyo and had a cultural exchange event with the students of Eikei University in Hiroshima.
Suyla is also very passionate about biology, and she wants to pursue a career in marine biology as well as music in the future. She believes that composition is how she can bring together the two passions of hers; biology and music, and the artist that has especially inspired her in this topic is Cosmo Sheldrake. A musician who uses animal sounds to make music.
You can find Suyla’s 2024 Romantic Music Competition guitar performance here.