Kudsi Erguner

Kudsi Erguner, (born 1952) is a Turkish musician. He is considered a master of traditional Mevlevi Sufi and is one of the best-known players of the Turkish ney flute.

Biography

He was born in Diyarbakir, Turkey in 1952. As a boy, Kudsi and his father Ulvi Erguner performed hypnotic and spiritual dance rituals from the Mevlevi-Sufi tradition at Dervish ceremonies. He started his musical career in Istanbul Radio in 1969. For several decades now, he has researched into the earliest roots of Ottoman music which he has also taught, performed and recorded.

In the seventies Kudsi Erguner moved to Paris where, at the beginning of the eighties, he founded the "Mevlana" Institute devoted to the study and teaching of classical Sufi music. Together with the "Kudsi Erguner Ensemble" he developed deep insights into the diversity of his culture: the group conveys both authentic, often improvised forms of expression of classical Ottoman performance culture as well as a comprehensive repertoire of modern and classical pieces that can be traced back to the 13th century.

In addition to his own recordings, Erguner has performed with Peter Gabriel , Maurice Béjart, Peter Brook, George Aperghis, Didier Lockwood and Michel Portal.