Füsun Köksal (born 1973)
Füsun Köksal was born in Bursa, Turkey. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition from the Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts in Ankara, and subsequently studied composition in Cologne, Germany. She is now working on her PhD at the University of Chicago.
Füsun Köksal composed her String Quartet No. 1 (entitled Of Light and Shadows) between 2006 and 2007. As the title suggests, the music combines enticing (though often elusive) lyricism with passages of Bartokian intensity, including some truly vicious pizzicati: