Biography

A French citizen, born in Istanbul of a family with Russian origins, Serâ Tokay completed her studies in conducting at the Lausanne Conservatory and at the National Conservatory of Limoges.

Janos Fürst, Vsevolod Polonsky, Alain Voirpy and Hervé Klopfenstein are those whose successive influence most marked her development. Seven years of apprenticeship under the baton of the young Russian conductor, Vsevolod Polonsky, introduced her to the spiritual heritage of Mravinsky and the celebrated Russian school.

Along with her music studies, Serâ Tokay has acquired the tools of philosophical reflection on music in the phenomenological tradition. To this end, she pursued a philosophical curriculum which has led her to prepare a doctorate at the Sorbonne-Paris IV.

To elucidate the mysteries of the empathic relation between the conductor and her instrumentists, a phenomenological description has first to react against the established prejudices in the profession. Serâ Tokay's interests matched those of the neurophysiologist Luciano Fadiga, at the University of Ferrara, one of the authors of the discovery of ‘mirror neurones’. A programme has been set up in the framework of research devoted to the cerebral foundations of gestural communication. A series of kinematic recordings have been made of the movements of string bows and of the conductor's baton, with a view to measuring the ‘driving force’ of the latter upon the orchestra. The results are awaiting publication.

Serâ Tokay has been musical director and principal conductor of the Sisli Symphony orchestra in Istanbul. This orchestra, made up of some 66 young graduates from the State Conservatory of Istanbul, was set up by the mayor of Sisli in an attempt to make the values of a universal culture available to the people.

Serâ Tokay was also invited by the Afghan Minister of Culture, Dr Makdum Rahin, to found a school of music in Kabul, and to conduct a series of concerts with the Sisli Symphony Orchestra under the auspices of NATO.

Having made herself known in the symphonic repertoire (Mahler, Shostakovich, Stravinsky) through a series of fifty concerts for large orchestras, Serâ Tokay then found in music for chamber orchestra a new source of inspiration. A significant tightening of the instrumental material would allow her a mastery of tone more in keeping with her ideal.

In 2010 she was invited to conduct an exceptional concert at the Collège de France, Paris in the framework of a scientific colloquium.
In 2011, Serâ Tokay created the Lutèce Philharmonia, a chamber orchestra bringing together young French musicians who graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. This orchestra has already started performing in Paris. A series of concerts is planned, starting from London and continuing through Europe and eventually reaching the United States, with a repetoire of works by Schönberg, Berg, Webern, Hindemith, Stravinsky and R. Strauss.