Teachers
Omer
ErdoÄŸdular
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Ömer ErdoÄŸdular started studying music while still a child, initially learning ney (reed flute) from his father. He began studying ney with Ümit Gürelman, as well as Halil Can, who influenced his intellectual approach to art. In 1965, he began his long training with Niyazi Sayın, which continued for many years and beyond music. In the following two decades -a period when ney just began to be rediscovered in Turkey- he partook in radio and TV programs, orchestras and concerts. His musical style reveals Tanburi Cemil Bey’s profound influence conveying the makam qualities and a particular playing style and sound of Tanburi Cemil Bey’s improvisations onto the ney.
Beginning in 1980 he started performing with the legendary soloist Bekir Sıtkı Sezgin, subsequently playing in in most his concerts. From 1984 to 1987, Ömer ErdoÄŸdular was a neyzen in the Turkish Ministry of Culture Classical Turkish Music Chorus directed by Prof. Dr. Nevzat Atlig. He made several recordings, among them with Bekir Sıtkı Sezgin, tanburi Necdet YaÅŸar and kemençevi Ä°hsan Özgen. He is a founding member of the State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble in 1987, led by Necdet YaÅŸar from which he retired in 2014. He is also a founding member of the group Bosporus, along with Ihsan Ozgen, Mutlu Torun, and Erol Deran, which performed the first Turkish music concert in Greece in 1984. As a soloist, a member of the State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble, and also the Necdet YaÅŸar Ensemble, Ömer ErdoÄŸdular performed around Turkey and in Europe, United States, Japan and the Middle East participating in various festivals, concerts and workshops. He devotes a significant amount of his time to teaching, in Istanbul, and in seminars abroad, such as the Annual Turkish Music Institute Workshop in New York, Labyrinth Musical Workshop in Crete, Makam Bosnia in Sarajevo, and Makamhane in Vienna. www.omererdogdular.com
Ahmet ErdoÄŸdular
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Renowned for his sophisticated singing style and superior command of vocal techniques, Ahmet Erdogdular is also distinguished for his role in preserving the classical vocal forms of the Ottoman musical tradition. The New York Times deemed his voice “voluptuous and pliable” and his program “intoxicating.”
Starting music at an early age with his father and continuing under the guidance of the renowned Niyazi Sayın, Erdogdular performed as a lead singer while still a teenager. Erdogdular also studied makam and improvisation techniques with Necdet YaÅŸar and Kani Karaca, and later performed with them. He successively completed his bachelors and master’s degrees in Turkish Classical Music at the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory. Erdogdular specialized in Turkish gazel (vocal improvisation) technique, while his research is on the use of music and poetry in gazel of the late Ottoman period. He continued his research in ethnomusicology and performance as a visiting scholar at Columbia University Department of Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies, and City University of New York Graduate Center Ethnomusicology.
Studying the methods and vocal techniques of Munir Nurettin Selçuk and Bekir Sıtkı Sezgin, and analyzing the early twentieth century recordings by soloists including Hafiz Kemal, Izak Al Gazi, and Üsküdarli Ali Efendi, Erdogdular mastered the ways in which poetry is matched to the music so that the literary substance and the musical composition are equally represented when improvising. He also performs Sufi musical repertoire that over centuries integrated spiritual practice and artistic expression, including the naat in Mevlevi ayins (the so-called “whirling dervish” ceremony), as well as ilahi (hymns) and kaside (improvisation on religious poetry), as essential components of the Sufi zikir (remembrance ceremony).
Ahmet Erdogdular is the founder and artistic director of Makam New York, Inc., a non-profit organization for Ottoman classical music and arts. He founded the Turkish Music Institute Workshop in 2011 – a first in North America, to bring the foremost masters of modal music to New York City for an intensive week of music immersion. Ahmet Erdogdular performed in numerous concerts worldwide and festivals such as the Biennale di Venezia, and Fez Sacred Music Festival. He took part in The Sacred Encounter, a documentary presented to UNESCO for the declaration of Rumi an Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Ahmet Erdogdular Ensemble performed the first ever Turkish classical music concert in the history of Carnegie Hall in 2017. In addition to a four-part Anthology of Ottoman Music, and a number of album collaborations, Erdogdular's two latest albums Songs of the Sultans-Masterpieces of Turkish Classical Music and Niyaz-Sufi Songs of Love received significant critics’ attention. Ahmet Erdogdular also plays tambur, oud, and percussion. www.ahmeterdogdular.com