Biography
A multi-award-winning classical and jazz flutist, composer, arranger, and recording artist, Yağmur Soydemir is Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music, Principal Flutist of the Turkish American Orchestra, and a Jazz Flute Committee Member of the National Flute Association, based in Boston, MA, USA. She has received numerous awards in international solo flute, chamber music, and composition competitions across Europe and the USA, and performed with more than 20 prominent symphony orchestras worldwide, in addition to numerous solo and chamber performances on major stages, radio, and television, presenting her original compositions.
Expanding her expertise in classical music for over 20 years, she is also an active jazz performer, regularly appearing with her own jazz band projects and big band orchestras. She has performed at a wide range of prestigious venues such as MGM Music Hall, Carnegie 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 Performing Arts, Miami Beach Bandshell, Ridgefield Playhouse and more. She also performs annually at Turkish National Day Ceremonies hosted by the Boston Turkish Consulate at the Boston Turkish Consulate Residency, the Turkish Consulate in New York City, and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island State Houses. She toured as Special Guest Flutist with The Buena Vista Orchestra on its 2025 North American Tour, appearing 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 (above First Prize) at the CAI Competition in New York City (2025), with an invitation to perform her original compositions at Carnegie Hall; Third Prize at the Boston International Composition Competition in the 'Composition for Orchestra' category (2025); and the Berklee Faculty Recording Grant (2025) from Berklee College of Music. In 2024, she received a nomination for the Excellence in Activism Award at the Best of Berklee Awards. In 2023, she was awarded the Diversity and Inclusion Grant for her humanitarian initiative, Earthquake Relief Project for Türkiye. She received 2 full-tuition (%100) merit-based scholarship awards to pursue both her Master’s and Bachelor’s Degrees at Berklee College of Music (2024 and 2020), as well as the Turkish Jazz Talent Scholarship from the Jazz Society of Türkiye (2020). Her international competition distinctions 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 French Association.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in 'Flute Performance' from Nice Conservatory in France, a Master’s Degree in the same field 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 a full-tuition scholarship 2 times.
As a composer and arranger, Yağmur’s original works have been performed by small ensembles and orchestras, with notable performances in Turkey and the USA. She has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, presenting her own arrangements with the Turkish American Orchestra, her original compositions with the Berklee Musicians Orchestra, and as featured soloist with Les Flûtes d’Azur and the Başkent Chamber Orchestra.
Alongside her artistic projects, she has been actively involved in community service, volunteering in programs supporting orphans in Ankara, Turkey, and serving as a children’s choir conductor. In Boston, she has performed in numerous outreach concerts and co-produced the Earthquake Relief Project for Türkiye, a collaborative initiative bringing together 80 musicians from 30 countries, released in partnership with Berklee Productions to raise donations for earthquake victims in Türkiye.
In 2025, she served as a Jury Panel Member for the Jazz Flute Big Band Competition of the National Flute Association of the USA, and in 2023, as a Jury Panel Member for the Outstanding Türkiye International Jazz Music Competition by the METU Jazz Society in Ankara, Türkiye.
In addition to serving as a Jazz Committee Member at the National Flute Association in the USA, she is a member of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the Associated Chamber Music Players (ACMP), and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). She is also a signed artist with The Orchard.
Her professional experience also includes roles as a Rating Auditions Assistant in the Ensemble Department at Berklee College of Music, Graduate Assistant at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and a Studio Recording Artist at the Berklee Film Scoring Studio Orchestra in the Screen Scoring Department.
Currently, alongside performing, composing, arranging, and recording, Yağmur is a dedicated educator, offering both online and in-person flute instruction, as well as specialized career coaching for musicians across a variety of professional topics.