• Composer Necil Kazim Akses, 1908

Akses studied music and composition at the Musikakademie in Vienna with Joseph Marx and at the Prague Conservatory in Prague with Josef Suk and Alois Hába. He helped co-found the Ankara State Conservatory with the composer Paul Hindemith and served as director of the institution for a while.

Together with Cemal Reşit Rey, Ulvi Cemal Erkin, Ahmet Adnan Saygun, and Hasan Ferit Alnar, Akses belonged to a group called The Turkish Five, who were the first Turkish composers to adapt their homeland's musical tradition to the techniques of Western classical composition. (Their name alluded to the Russian Five.)

In 1949, Akses entered the service of the Turkish state. He worked as the Turkish cultural attaché in Bern and Bonn, among other posts.

Akses composed orchestral works, chamber music and pieces for piano. His most famous work is his violin concerto (1969).