Biography
A multi-award-winning flutist, composer, and arranger, Yağmur Soydemir is Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, Jazz Flute Committee Member of the National Flute Association, Principal Flutist of the Turkish American Orchestra, and Official Performing Artist of Miyazawa Flutes. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, she has received numerous awards in international flute performance, chamber music, and composition competitions across Europe and the United States. Her career includes performances with more than 20 symphony orchestras worldwide, as well as with big bands and her own jazz ensemble, in addition to solo and ensemble performances on major stages, radio, and television, presenting her original compositions.
With over 20 years of classical training and performance experience, she is also an active multi-genre performer, regularly performing with her own ensemble and other artists. She has performed at a wide range of venues such as Carnegie Hall, MGM Music Hall, Berklee Performance Center, Harvard Club of Boston, Neidorff-Karpati Hall, Emerson Colonial Theatre, Lincoln Theatre, State Theatre New Jersey, Kupferberg Center for the Arts, Bergen Performing Arts Center, Charleston Music Hall, Center Stage Theater, Carolina Theatre, Florida Theatre, Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Beach Bandshell, Ridgefield Playhouse, and others. She also performs annually at Turkish National Day ceremonies hosted by the Turkish Consulates of Boston and New York, as well as at the Massachusetts and Rhode Island State Houses. In 2025, she toured with The Buena Vista Orchestra on its North American Tour as Special Guest Flutist, performing in 14 theater shows across Boston, Danbury, Englewood, Queens, New Brunswick, Washington, Durham, Charleston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, and Miami Beach.
Her honors and awards include the Grand Prize, the competition’s highest distinction, at the CAI Competition in New York City (2025), which included an invitation to perform her original compositions at Carnegie Hall; Third Prize in the Composition for Orchestra category of the Boston International Composition Competition (2025); and the Berklee Faculty Recording Grant (2025) from Berklee College of Music. In 2023, she was awarded the Diversity & Inclusion Grant for her humanitarian initiative, Earthquake Relief Project for Türkiye. She also received 2 full-tuition (100%) merit-based scholarship awards for both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Berklee College of Music (2020 and 2024), as well as the Turkish Jazz Talent Scholarship from the Jazz Society of Türkiye (2020). Her international competition awards also include First Prize at the 9th Chamber Music Competition of Nice, France (2019), First Prize at the Flute Orchestra Competition of Nice, France (2019), Second Prize at the International Solo Flute Competition of Nice, France (2018), and First Prize at the International Chamber Music Competition of Cannes, France (2017), presented by the A Travers La Flûte Association.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Flute Performance from the Nice Conservatory in France, a Master’s Degree in Flute Performance from Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, a Professional Diploma with a dual major in Contemporary Writing & Production and Jazz Performance from Berklee College of Music, and a second Master’s Degree in Global Jazz from Berklee College of Music, where she was awarded two full-tuition merit-based scholarships.
As a composer and arranger, Yağmur’s original works have been performed by ensembles and orchestras in Türkiye and the United States. She has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, presenting her own arrangements with the Turkish American Orchestra, her original compositions with the Berklee Musicians Orchestra, and featured solo repertoire with Les Flûtes d’Azur and the Başkent Chamber Orchestra.
Alongside her artistic projects, she has been actively involved in community service, including volunteer work with programs supporting orphans in Ankara, Türkiye, and serving as a children’s choir conductor. In Boston, she has participated in numerous outreach concerts and co-produced the Earthquake Relief Project for Türkiye, a collaborative initiative that brought together 72 musicians from 25 countries and was produced in partnership with Berklee Productions to support earthquake relief efforts in Türkiye.
In 2025, she was invited to serve as a jury member for the Jazz Flute Big Band Competition of the National Flute Association, and in 2023, for the Outstanding Türkiye International Jazz Music Competition presented by the METU Jazz Society in Ankara, Türkiye.
In addition to serving as a Jazz Committee Member of the National Flute Association, she is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the Associated Chamber Music Players (ACMP), the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), and Grammy U of the Recording Academy.
Her professional experience also includes serving as Flute Faculty at the Brookline Music School, Rating Auditions Assistant at Berklee College of Music, Graduate Assistant at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and Studio Recording Artist with the Berklee Film Scoring Studio Orchestra.
Currently, alongside her performing, composing, arranging, and recording projects, Yağmur is an active educator, offering both online and in-person flute instruction, as well as career coaching for musicians across a range of professional topics.