Ahmet Sönmezler is the only Assistant Professor Doctor of guitar in the history of North Cyprus. Assist. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler is from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and was born in 1983. He became acquainted with the classical music at the age of five and began to play classical guitar professionally at the age of seventeen. He gave concerts at the Kammermusik Festival and Summer Academy in Austria, at the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival in Italy, at the SoundSCAPE Festival in Italy, at the 2nd Tucson Spanish and Flamenco Festival in USA, at the 1st Tucson International Guitar Festival in USA, at the 17th International North Cyprus Bellapais Music Festival in Cyprus, the gala concert at the Nicosia Old Town Classical, Jazz and World Music Festival 2013 in Cyprus and at the Middle East Technical University and Anatolian University National Conservatory in Turkey.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sönmezler was one of the organizers of the First International Tucson Guitar Festival held at the University of Arizona School of Music in November 2009. He was the member of Tucson Guitar Society’s guitar orchestra for 3 years.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler has given the world premieres of the works of many composers including Mark Zanter "Character Pieces for Guitar", Luca Vanneschi "Quattro Piccolli Pezzi Blu", and David S. Lefkowitz "(Sur-)Real (Cine-) Music I: The Chase Through Escher's Metamorphosen." Famous American composer John A. Carollo dedicated a solo classical guitar piece to Assist. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler called “Fantasia and semi-Passacaglia for guitar.” Assist. Prof. Dr. Sönmezler has performed for renowned Classical Guitar artists including Armin Egger, Massimo delle Cese, Philipe Villa, Mauricio Carrasco, Rafael Aguirre, Lukasz Kuropaczewski, David Tanenbaum, Paul Galbraith, Eduardo Fernandez, Sergio Assad, Odair Assad, David Russell and Manuel Barrueco.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sönmezler earned his Bachelor of Music Degree from the Eastern Mediterranean University in Guitar performance in the first place with High-Honors, a Master of Music Degree in Guitar performance from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Guitar performance with 4.00 cumulative GPA from the University of Arizona School of Music. Asist Prof. Dr. Sönmezler studied with Bruce Saunders, Rick Peckham, Robin Stone, Scotty Johnson and with the world-renowned guitar virtuoso Steve Vai at Berklee College of Music and completed Steve Vai Guitar specialist certificate. He is a member of the Mu Phi Epsilon Fraternity, Phi Gamma Chapter, Peabody Conservatory and a guitar artist of Price Rubin and Partners Management from Los Angeles, USA.
Assit. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sönmezler resides in North Cyprus where he worked as a guitar instructor at the Near East University, Eastern Mediterranean University and at the Yamaha Music School. Currently, he is the chair of the Music Teaching Department at Girne American University.