CIHAN TÜRKOĞLU

Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.
~ Confucius

From a very young age Cihan Türkoğlu was introduced to this very pleasure, and discovered that music was the path he was to follow. The first instrument Cihan held in his hands was the Turkish folk lute known as bağlama (saz) and so, his musical journey began. Deeply rooted in his culture’s tradition, and having discovered his love for music, he became an autodidact bağlama player. Later, he commenced his studies in classical music at the Marmara University in Istanbul focusing on the cello. Never having neglected his passion for the bağlama, and feeling the need to broaden his knowledge, Cihan decided in 2005 to further his studies under the tutelage of one of Turkey’s grand masters of the instrument, Mehmet Erenler.

The classical music education Cihan followed alongside the varying music genres he found himself drawn to throughout the years (classical, rock, avant guard, and traditional), contributed to his current way of thinking especially in regard to traditional music and the saz as an instrument. His personal point of view on how the saz can be used, practiced, and taught, as well as the ways in which he can, or is even allowed to express himself escaping at times tradition and its rules, are a result of this perspective Cihan has adopted as his unique identity.

​“I have come to respect the past and embrace the future – society’s natural progression towards the new and original; this is an ideology I wish to convey through my music.”

His music experience as a composer, teacher, concert performer, and as organizer of multicultural projects, has presented him with the opportunity to collaborate with many world-renowned artists such as Maria Farantouri, Ross Daly, Kelly Thoma, Periklis Papapetropoulos, Anja Lechner, Bijan Chemirani, Ali Akbar Moradi, Arash Moradi, Metin&Kemal Kahraman, Sokratis Sinopoulos, Katerina Papadopoulou, Nikos Kypourgos, Lydia Koniordou and others, in Turkey and abroad.

​Cihan was born in Turkey; since 2009 he has been living in Athens, Greece where he continues to create music bringing people together, and attempting to break barriers people of different cultural background often seem to think exist.