Tahir Aydoğdu | ms

Tahir AYDOĞDU, Kanun player, born in İstanbul in 1959, Tahir Aydoğdu graduated from the Physics Department of the Middle East Technical University,Ankara. He began his music studies in high school and attended various chorus activities. He received his first instruction from his father Gültekin Aydoğdu who is a kanun player at TRT Ankara Radio and conductor of the Turkish Fasıl Ensemble. He was also trained by various Turkish music authorities. Following his graduation from the Physics department of the M.E.T.U. (Ankara 1983), he was appointed to the TRT Ankara Radio Turkish Music Ensemble as a kanun player. Besides various concerts he gave in Turkey, he also represented his country in many important music venues in the United States and Asia with the “Modern Folk Trio”, With whom he worked for eight years. With the “AsiaMinor” Jazz Ensemble whose musical goal was to combine Turkish Music and Jazz, the artist played in many concerts,attended various work-shops and festivals abroad i.e. ten years of touring extensively throughout Europe and America. As a member of AsiaMinor he released several CD’s,namely, “Along the Street” (Vienna,1991), “Longanova” (1997) and “Cat’s Dream” (Ankara ,1998).Other CD’s include “Yahya Kemal in the music of Cinuçen Tanrıkorur” with the composer on Ud ; “Balkanatolia”with Jazz singer Yıldız İbrahimova; “from Sufi Music to Flamenco” with Dutch Guitarist Eric Vaarzon Morel; “Afife” Turkish Ballet composed by Turgay Erdener with Tschaikovksy Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rengim Gökmen in Moscow ( June 2000), “Ferid Alnar” produced by Ş.Kahramankaptan, sponsored by TCMB with the Anatolian String Quartet in December 2000. He also released 5 CD’s abroad ,namely, “Sufi Music from Turkey” (Great Britain,2002) produced by ARC Music with the catalog number EUCD 1741,and “The International Cimbalom Festival” (Netherland,2001) produced by Frea Records and the others. With his kanun, Aydoğdu accompanied the orchestra and dancers in ballet performances of Selman Ada’s “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” with Ankara State Ballet & Opera Orchestra conducted by B. Hoinic; Turgay Erdener’s ballet “Afife” conducted by R.Gökmen with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, and Aydoğdu arranged the music for the ballet “Harem” . Besides various concerts with different groups , Aydoğdu gave many seminars about the kanun and Turkish music in the Hannover Hochshule,Germany; Girne,Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus; Middle East Technical University, Ankara ; and Selçuk University , Konya. One of the highest honors Aydoğdu has received is the appreciation prize given by the council of the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara on May 25th,2001 as a musician & graduate of METU. His life story has been taken up as a master’s thesis subject by a student in the Turkish Music Conservatoire of Ege University.The other prize has been given him by National Olympic Committee on may 2006 because of his great struggles about Turkish Music and Turkish Culture that he had Radio programmes at TRT Radyo-4. He has contributed to education of numerous music students by giving lectures and demonstrations in the School of Music & Fine Arts of METU and Gazi University. He has directed choirs of classical Turkish Music. A member of the World Simbalom Association, based in Budapest , Aydoğdu is an active kanun player at the TRT Ankara Radio. His solo album “Hasret” was produced by “Kalan Music” in İstanbul on July 2004. He has produced 23 CD’s with different musicians and groups up to know in home and abroad.His Kanun Method Book (published by Yurt Renkleri, Ankara,October 2004) teaches not only how to play the kanun,but also how to construct and repair it. www.TahirAydogdu.com e-mail:[email protected] .. .