Leyla Gencer

Early life

Leyla Gencer was born in Polonezköy (near Istanbul) to a Turkish father and a Polish mother. Her father, Hasanzade İbrahim Bey (who took the surname Çeyrekgil under the Surname Law of 1934), was a wealthy businessman, whose family was from the city of Safranbolu. Her mother, Lexanda Angela Minakovska, was from a Roman Catholic family of the Lithuanian aristocracy (she later converted to Islam and chose the name Atiye after her husband's death.) Gencer's father died when she was very young. She grew up in the Çubuklu neighbourhood of Istanbul, on the Anatolian side of the Bosphorus strait. In 1946, she married İbrahim Gencer, a banker related to the influential İpekçi family.

Education and early career

She began to study singing at the Istanbul Conservatory but dropped out to study privately in Ankara with her teacher the Italian soprano Giannina Arangi-Lombardi. After Arangi-Lombardi's death, Gencer continued her studies with the Italian baritone Apollo Granforte. She sang in the chorus of the Turkish State Theater until 1950, when she made her operatic debut in Ankara, as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. During the next few years, she became well known in Turkey and sang frequently at functions for the Turkish government.

Death

Gencer died on 10 May 2008, aged 79, in Milan. Following her funeral service in San Babila Church and subsequent cremation in Milan, her ashes were brought to Istanbul and scattered in the waters of the Bosphorus on May 16, by famous musician Fazıl Say, according to her wish.
Ten years after her death, in 2018, the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts commemorated Leyla Gencer with the 9th edition of the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition and an exhibition titled Primadonna and Solitude.
In 2019, IKSV commissioned a film, Leyla Gencer: La Diva Turca, written by Zeynep Oral, which was screened at the Grimeborn Festival at the Arcola Theatre.