Yasam Hancilar

Jazz, voice - class 2013

In 2009, Yaşam Hancılar came as an engineer from Istanbul to the Netherlands to study in the Jazz voice department at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. In 2015, we interviewed him about his band and the music school he founded. How are things going now?

FOLLOW-UP 2021

What are you working on at present?
“My music school Music For Life is still doing very well. We have about 160 students. Things were difficult during the coronavirus pandemic, but we’re busy expanding. In the meantime, we’ve released our third album, Rush Hour, with the Yaşam Hancılar Band. I’m also making a theatre show based on that album: Brug over de Bosporus (Bridge over the Bosphorus). I’m currently busy booking shows for when the coronavirus dies down. And I have founded the foundation Amsterdam Jazz West. The foundation organises educational projects, separate shows and hopefully an annually recurring jazz festival in Amsterdam-West and Nieuw-West soon.”

In 2015, you said that you grew tired of the business life in Istanbul, and yet you started a business immediately after graduating. Do you feel like a musician, an entrepreneur or both now?
“I feel like both a musician and an entrepreneur. I use my knowledge from my former business life in my current life. Anno 2021, all musicians have to be entrepreneurs, unfortunately, sometimes more so than musicians. All the teachers at the music school, for example, are freelancers. Nine out of ten times, a recently graduated Conservatorium student has to set up his/her own business, make a self-released first album with the aid of a crowdfunding campaign and book his/her own shows. You can only make a deal with a record company or a booker once you have become more well-known.”

“I book my own shows, but I prefer to outsource some things. For example, I hire a company, The Media Hub, to manage my band’s social media accounts. I notice a big difference between doing it yourself and letting someone else do it who specialises in that. As a result of that, I have more time for my own musical activities. It also works better.”

If you think that music is a basic need, like air and water, then you’re at the right place.
Yaşam Hancılar

What’s the meaning behind the name of your music school?  
“The name of the music school is Music for Life. Our names have meanings in Turkish. Yaşam means ‘life’; I really wanted that to be incorporated into the name of the school. Music is so important in my life; it’s really a basic need for me. I can’t live without music. That also applies to all teachers who give lessons here.”

How has the music school developed?
“Because we have grown substantially, the way of working has changed in particular. With 160 students and 15 teachers, for example, you must have good bookkeeping software.  We also have an online booking system with which people can book trial lessons via the website, and students and teachers can view their lessons. Because I do everything on my own, I definitely need these types of tools.”  

“I would really like a bigger location for the music school in the district, so that we could offer even better facilities. I want to set up more branches in other urban districts and hopefully in other cities too in the near future.”

How have things gone for your music school during the coronavirus period?
“We had to make the switch, of course, to online lessons. Now and then, we did have the opportunity to teach children live. During the first lockdown, lots of people didn’t want online lessons, because nobody expected that it would last so long. But that changed when it became clear that it was going to last long. We notice that online music education is not ideal. Not all students have all the possibilities at home. If someone doesn’t have a drum kit at home, online drum lessons are not an option. They also come to the music school to practice, so they don’t get into arguments with their neighbours. Or if someone has difficulty with computers, then for the first 15 minutes you’re only solving technical problems.”   

Do you still do neighbourhood projects?
“With the Amsterdam Jazz West foundation, we want to set up educational projects. I think that arts education should be accessible to people of all ages, from all backgrounds. That’s why the activities are free for participants. We try to make agreements with urban districts for a budget, for example, or to use locations for rehearsals and shows. We have ambitious plans to bring jazz music to the people, in schools, squares, community centres, bars and restaurants.”

How are things going with the Yaşam Hancılar Band?
“A few of my international band members have moved back to their country of origin. That’s when the Dutch band members Coen Molenaar, David de Marez Oyens and Enrique Firpi joined the band. In the meantime, I’ve also become a Dutch citizen. However, I come from Turkey and Enrique comes from Uruguay, so the international identity is still there. This band has helped me to grow. Our last album Rush Hour consists almost entirely of original compositions. All kinds of great shows were cancelled because of the coronavirus, but I am now busy organising gigs once again. I hope that we can schedule our dream shows again for next summer.”  

What do you do as guest teacher at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam?
“I am a guest teacher in the Jazz Bachelor’s programme, where I teach students who are interested in working as a teacher in the future and want to begin their own teaching practice. I share my experiences gained from the music school with them and talk about the administrative and organisational part, from business plan to execution. It helps them to get a clear picture about how they can prepare for the teaching practice.”

What are you proud of?
“That I have taken the step to choose a new life. It was not easy. I got into the airplane alone in Turkey. I had no family and friends in the Netherlands. But after twelve years, I have achieved great things: the music school, the band, good musician colleagues and friends around me. I’m proud of that.”  

What are your plans for the future?
“My goal is to become more and more established in cultural life, to become more well-known and to bring jazz to the people.”

Video interview 2015

In this interview Yaşam explains what it's like to have a band whose members all have different nationalities and how he arranges the bookings himself. He explains why he started a music school in Amsterdam West after graduating, how he involves his talented and teaching friends of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in it and what he does for the neighborhood. Starting musicians, he advises to keep on investing in music and to continue: "Ïn these times, teaching is a big part of your musicianship, not only being an artist or performer, you write, you perform and you also teach.”

September 7, 2015