Oktay ÃœST

Oktay Ust was born 1980 in the village Xunar of the district Pazar. In his infancy, he got the chance to meet Ahmet Gungor and to listen his songs. Ahmet Gungor is a famous player of the traditional instrument of the Laz people in the black sea region, called kemenche. Later he got lessons from Emine Ozgurbuz, a singer and baglama (folk instrument with the double strings and a long neck) player from the same village. His own musical career started. After a concentrated study of the kemenche, he started to play for different groups and musicians. He took part as vocalist in the first Salkim Sogut album. In 2002, he started to study at the State Conservatory of the Dicle University. In the very same year, he passed the examination for the course of study of kemenche and kabak kemenche, that had been coined by the national television TRT. So parallel to his three-year course of study, he took part in different television and radio broadcasts of TRT. Oktay tries to bring forward and save songs of the Laz culture, that are threatening to become forgotten.