Derya Türkan is a young master of classical Turkish kemenche (3-stringed fiddle). He plays improvisational as well as the Ottoman classical music repertoire.Türkan was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1973. He grew up in a musical family and his first music lessons were with the well known Turkish cellist Firat Kiziltug. From 1984 to 1994, Türkan attended and graduated from the Turkish Music Conservatory Instruments Education Department of the Istanbul Technical University, where he studied kemence with Ihsan Özgen, an internationally recognized Turkish musician. In 1990, Türkan was invited to join the Turkish Cultural Ministry’s Istanbul National Turkish Music Ensemble, directed by Necdet Yasar. Türkan performed for seven years with this ensemble as a guest musician.In 1991 Türkan joined Turkish Radio Television (TRT), Istanbul Radio division, where he earned outstanding praise. In 2000, he became a permanent employee of the TRT. He had the opportunity to perform alongside such master musicians as Alâeddin Yavasça, Bekir Sidki Sezgin, Niyazi Sayin, Erol Deran, Mutlu Torun, Inci Cayirli and Yavuz Ozustun. During this time, he performed at many concerts both nationally and internationally with well known groups such as the Necdet Yasar Ensemble, and Ihsan Özgen’s Anatolia Ensemble.In 1996, Türkan performed with Turkish ney player Kudsi Erguner at Yehudi Menuhin..s 80th birthday celebration concerts, organized by French President Jacques Chirac, as an invited musician. Türkan also has toured and recorded with Kudsi Erguner’s various ensembles. Some of these projects include Ottoman Drums, Ottamania, IslamBlues and La Banda Allaturka. Derya recorded "Chemins" with Kudsi Erguner in 1996. This album was released in France and later in Turkey.Türkan has given many concerts in the United States, Japan,France, Germany, Finland, Italy, Spain, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Israel and many other countries in addition to his native Turkey. In particular, he performed and gave workshops both East and West coasts of the United States in universities such as MIT, Harvard and UC Santa Cruz as well as New England Conservatory. In some of these concerts he was joined by Sehvar Besiroglu and Feridun Ozgoren.Like his teacher Ihsan Özgen, Türkan aims to follow and develop the teachings of one of this century’s genius musicians, Tanburi Cemil Bey, and today continues to work on different projects in his music career with this goal in mind. "Ahenk - Volume 1", "Ahenk - Volume 2" and ’Letter from Istanbul are consequent steps towards Türkan’s goal. Derya’s latest recording is "Minstrel’s Era". On this recording, he is joined by Ugur Isik on violencello and Renaud Garcia Fons on double bass.
