Biography

Gökberk Eryılmaz was born in Samsun, Türkiye. His musical path started from being a chorist of TRT Ankara Choir at the age of 8. During that time, he had many interests in different fields such as professional chess playing, and performing in Ankara State Theater as a child actor.

He became a clarinet student of Vladimir Zverev in Bilkent University Music Preparatory School in 2007. He continued his clarinet studies with Selen Akcora and Leonid Volkov at Bilkent University Music High School. He had private studies with Ron Samuels in Pittsburgh in 2014.

Eryılmaz obtained his bachelor’s degree from Codarts, the Rotterdam Conservatory where he studied with Nancy Braithwaite. During his bachelor’s, Eryılmaz has performed in many crossover projects, next to focusing on chamber music and contemporary music.

Eryılmaz completed his master’s degree with former New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Mark Nuccio, and Sasha Potiomkin at the University of Houston in 2022.

In 2021, he was invited to be the clarinetist of AURA Contemporary Ensemble and performed with the ensemble for a season. Also, Eryılmaz has been performing with Hoppa Project and given concerts in the States, and Turkey. He attended masterclasses and worked with clarinet players such as David Krakauer, Pascal Moragues, Alexander Fiterstein, Franklin Cohen, Ayako Oshima, and Roeland Hendrikx. Ron Samuels, Julien Herve, Nusret Ispir, Sarah Watts, Curt Blood, Jose Luis Estelles, Ekrem Oztan, David Kweksilber, Ronald Krentzman.

He performed in orchestras such as Ankara Youth Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Youth Symphony Orchestra, Blaricum Music Festival Orchestra, Orchestra Academic Baskent, Moores Symphony and Opera Orchestra, Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, and gave a concert as a soloist performing his brother Erberk Eryılmaz’s Miniatures Set No.2 with Hacettepe Chamber Orchestra. He worked with conductors such as Arie van Beek, Mathieu Herzog, Barry Douglas, Mikhail Zemtsov, Gurer Aykal, Orhun Orhon, Franz Krager, Raymond Harvey, Hans Leenders, Rob Smith.

Eryılmaz currently lives in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. He continues to perform in crossover projects, solo and chamber music concerts in Turkey, the USA, and the Netherlands.