As of 1 July 2026, Yeşim Gürer Oymak will assume the role of General Director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV).
Having served as Director of the Istanbul Music Festival between 2006 and 2018, and as Deputy Director General of İKSV since September 2017, Yeşim Gürer Oymak commented on her appointment as follows: “It is a great honour for me to assume this important role at the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), of which I have been a proud member for twenty years. I take on this position with great pleasure and excitement and, together with my colleagues, look forward to shaping the next chapter of the Foundation’s long-standing contribution to culture and the arts.”
With Yeşim Gürer Oymak taking over as General Director, Görgün Taner—who has held this position since 2002 and has been a member of the İKSV Board of Directors since 2021—will assume the role of Chair of the İKSV Executive Board. The Executive Board, comprising Prof. Dr. Teoman Akünal, Zeynep Hamedi, and Görgün Taner, will continue its work under the İKSV Board of Directors, chaired by Bülent Eczacıbaşı.
Reflecting on this new phase in the Foundation’s governance, İKSV General Director Görgün Taner, who has been part of the İKSV team since 1983 and served as Director of the Istanbul Jazz Festival between 1994 and 2002, stated: “I am delighted and proud that my valued colleague Yeşim Gürer Oymak, with whom I have worked closely for many years, has been appointed General Director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV). It is a great source of pride for us all that a dedicated and visionary cultural leader, with deep roots in the Foundation and extensive experience across different artistic disciplines, will be guiding İKSV into its next chapter.”
About Yeşim Gürer Oymak
Photograph: Muhsin Akgün
Yeşim Gürer Oymak studied at Saint-Benoît French High School before earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from Boğaziçi University, alongside a degree from the Piano Department of Istanbul University State Conservatory. She holds a master’s degree in Musicology from Mimar Sinan University State Conservatory and a doctorate in the same discipline from Istanbul University State Conservatory.
Between 1996 and 2016, Gürer Oymak was a faculty member and Assistant Professor at Istanbul University State Conservatory. During this period, she also chaired the Department of Musicology and was a member of the executive board of Ottoman Music Application and Research Centre - OMAR.
She became the Founding Director of the İş Sanat Cultural Centre, where she developed the institution’s year-round artistic programming until 2006. She then served as Director of the Istanbul Music Festival from 2006 to 2018. Between 2009 and 2010, she coordinated the classical music programme in France as part of the Cultural Season of Turkey in France, jointly organised by the Turkish and French Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
In recognition of her contributions to Polish–Turkish cultural relations, she was awarded the Bene Merito medal by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland in 2014. In 2019, she was awarded the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture for her role in strengthening cultural cooperation between France and Turkey in the fields of music and the arts, and in bringing classical music to wider audiences.
Yeşim Gürer Oymak has served as Deputy Director General of İKSV since 2017 and is also Co-Director of the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition.