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Erkan Ogur in the West (born 1954) is a Turkish musician. A pioneer of fretless guitars, he invented the first fretless classical guitar in 1976.A composer, he has influenced many musicians with his compositions combining the sounds of Turkish folk music, classical music with the ancient traditional music. He has played many concerts all over the world. He is regarded as a master of the kopuz and bağlama lutes.
Biography
Erkan Oğur was born in 1954, in Ankara, Turkey. He spent his childhood
in Elazığ, eastern Turkey,where he got interested in violin and the
Turkish bağlama lute, and started to practise them frequently. He
graduated from high school in Elazığ, then moved to study physics at
the Ankara University Faculty of Science from 1970 to 1973.As a result
of encouragement to be a scientist by his father, he started to study
chemical engineering and in 1974 continued his education in Munich,
Germany, for three years. He was introduced to guitar education in
1973. Instead of being a scientist, he chose to be a musician. Since he
needed detailed sounds from a guitar in order to obtain Turkish
melodies, he modified his guitar and invented the fretless classical
guitar in 1976.
In 1980, he returned to Turkey, and started to study at the State
Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University.After his military
service, he worked as an oud lute teacher. He had live performances
with Fikret Kızılok and Bülent Ortaçgil where he contributed to scene
with fretless guitar. He released his first album in Germany called
Arayışlar ("Searches"). In 1989, he went to the U.S. to work with
numerous local blues artists. He introduced fretless guitar into
blues.A year later, he released his first album in Turkey, Bir Ömürluk
Misafir ("Guest for a Lifetime"), which was ranked 4th in European
lists. He still performs concerts through the world and in Turkey. He
works with Kemal Eroglu on technical improvements on bağlama lute; and
continues his performances with Fahir Atakoglu and Bülent Ortaçgil. In
2004, he played on Yansımalar's album Pervane ("Moth"). He is a member
of the Telvin trio, which mainly performs Turkish folk music in
improvised jazz style, with İlkin Deniz and Turgut Alp Bekoglu,and has
released an album called Telvin in 2006.
His soundtrack for the 2004 movie Yazı Tura by Uğur Yücel won two
awards: the 2004 Golden Orange for Best Music at the Antalya Golden
Orange Film Festival, and the 2005 award for Best Music at the Ankara
International Film Festival.
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