In Turkey, Erdal Erzincan is often considered the most outstanding exponent of the Anatolian tradition. He has worked extensively with baglama legend Arif Sağ and performed with him around the world. |Erdal Erzincan was born in Erzumrum in 1971, and at an early age became deeply interested in the region’s folk music. Introduced to the bağlama, he moved to Istanbul in 1985 to take lessons at the Arif Sag Music School. While studying at the Istanbul Technical University in the late 1980s he began to research finger-picking approaches to playing the bağlama (as opposed to the more common plectrum style).
His first solo album Tore was released in 1994, the first of many successful discs, opening the way also for international performances. In 1996 he and Arif Sag collaborated with the Koln Philharmonic, an experiment continued by Erzincan in 2004 with the Ambassade Symphony Orchester Wien, an ensemble of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Erdal Erzincan teaches at a music school that carries his name and also leads a Baglama Orchestra comprised of 25 of his students.
Several of his own recordings have been best-sellers in Turkey. He is an exceptional bağlama (saz) player working out of a tradition that can be traced back to the days of the traveling Sufi poets, whose playing once provided a context for spiritual meditations. |
