Ruşen Güneş was born in 1940 in a traditional Turkish wood-framed house in Beypazarı, a small town west of Ankara. He studied at the Ankara State Conservatoire, and after working for a few years in Ankara’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music (London) where he studied with Frederick Riddle, and then at the University of Indiana at Bloomington (US) with the legendary William Primrose. After completing his military service in 1970, Ruşen moved to London. He was sought after at the highest level, performing as guest principal viola with all the London orchestras and the world’s most prestigious conductors, and frequently as soloist. Between 1979-1988 he was Principal Viola of the London Philharmonic, seeing him through both the Solti and Tennstedt eras; he then joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra as Principal Viola where he remained until 2000. As well as being an avid chamber music player, Güneş was hugely committed to promoting Turkish contemporary repertoire and to bringing lesser known viola repertoire to Turkey. He either commissioned and/or premiered nearly all the Turkish viola concertos ever written, and he performed the Turkish premieres of many major 20th century works, including the Walton and Bartók concertos. In his later years, Güneş was a prolific poet, and he recorded several discs of his own poetry accompanied by his own solo viola compositions. He died in London in 2020.