Nay player.
He was born on the 4th of February 1952 in Diyarbakır. He started
his music career in 1969 by entering Radio of Istanbul. He is an artist in the
field of nay, which is the main instrument of Sufi music and was raised by Ulvi
Erguner, the last representative of “Erguner School” which is the continuation
of Mawlawi tradition. He researched roots of Ottoman music and used it in his albums.
In 1973 he settled to Paris and aside from his musical works here he was
educated in architecture and musicology. He completed his PhD in both of these
fields. By the beginning of 1980s he established the Institute of Mawlana and
dedicated himself to learning classic Sufi thought.
Tarih
Boyu Hoşgörü
concert of Erguner in which he combined Christian and Muslim music of Istanbul
for the first time, Taj Mahal concert in which he brought Indian, Jazz
and Turkish musical artists together and his work titled Şair Cenazesi
he wrote for Nâzım Hikmet were appreciated within
Istanbul and Izmir festivals. Besides in 2008 he performed a concert with his
team in Frankfurt Opera in which he gave voice to poems of Goethe in his “West-Östlicher
Diwan” (West-Eastern Diwan) in form of Sufism in Turkish and German
languages.
He did not
limit himself with Turkey with his works on traditional music. He also made
researches and works in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Japan and Northern
African countries. In addition to his albums he also produced co-works with
worldly known musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Jean Michel Jarre, Maurice Béjart, Peter Brook, William Orbit, George Aperghis, Didier
Lockwood, Italian singer and composer Alice and Michel Portal. He realized projects in very
different fields for long years especially in Istanbul Festival and presented
that Classical Turkish Music could contain various themes in it. He worked with
the worldwide famous Peter Brook about theatre and cinema. In 1998 and 2002 he
was deemed worthy of “Afife Theatre Award” with his musical productions he
prepared for Simyacı and Benerji theatrical plays directed by
Mehmet Ulusoy.
MAIN WORKS
(Album):
Art of the Ottoman Tanbur (1989), Sufi Music of Turkey (1990), The
Turkish Ney (1990), Whirling Dervishes from Turkey (1991), Gazel:
Classical Sufi Music of the Ottoman Empire (1994), Peshrev & Semai
of Tanburi Djemil Bey (1994), L'Orient de L'Occident: Flamenco &
Ottoman Sufi Music (1995), Ottoman Classical Music (1995), The
Sacred Flute of the Whirling Dervishes (1996), Works of Kemani Tatyos
Efendit (1996), Vocal Masterpieces of Kemani Tatyos Efendi (1996), Psalms
of Yunus Emre (1997), Chemins (1997), Music from the Arabian
Nights (1999), Ottomania (1999), Islam Blues (2001), Taj
Mahal (2001), Gazing Point (2003).
