My Turkic Music Journey
My familiarity with Turkish music began through Hadi Sepehri, who was—and remains—deeply knowledgeable about Turkish folk music. He plays several types of bağlama and was among the relatively few musicians in Iran who travelled to Istanbul to learn the tradition directly from Turkish masters. Through him, Turkish music first entered my life not as an academic subject, but as a living performance practice.
Hadi founded Anadolu Sesi (The Sound of Anatolia), a Turkish folk music ensemble in which I played as a percussionist. Through rehearsing and performing with the group, I became familiar with Turkish percussion instruments (such as bendir), the rhythmic and metric systems of Turkish folk music, and the repertoire performed with the bağlama. This was my first sustained practical engagement with Turkish music.
In 2010, Hadi co-founded the Avaz Ensemble with Kemal Binici, a multi-instrumentalist musician from Ankara. With Avaz, we practised Iranian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish music. We travelled to Ankara and Istanbul several times, performing in concert halls and appearing on television and radio programs. These experiences brought me into closer contact with Turkish musicians, audiences, media institutions, and performance settings, while expanding my practical knowledge of Turkish repertoire and musical styles.
My engagement with Turkish music continued in a different form in 2023, when Nağme Yarkın came to the University of Alberta. A virtuoso of the Ottoman kemençe, a bowed instrument used in Turkish classical music, she taught a course on Turkish classical, or Ottoman, music and incorporated several pieces into the MENAME Ensemble. I worked as a teaching assistant for the ensemble under the supervision of Professor Michael Frishkopf. This experience introduced me more directly to Turkish classical repertoire, the modal system, and ensemble performance, complementing my earlier involvement with Turkish folk music.
My next goal is to deepen my knowledge and performance skills in Turkish classical music through learning the Ottoman tanbur, a long-necked plucked lute central to the tradition.