Biography
Kudsi Erguner ranks among the foremost interpreters of the ney, the Turkish reed flute, sharing that distinction with his brother Suleyman. Beyond his solo discography he has appeared alongside Peter Gabriel, Maurice Bejart, Peter Brook, Georges Aperghis, Didier Lockwood, and Michel Portal. His scores and joint projects have surfaced in the films The Last Temptation of Christ and Meetings with Remarkable Men, the theater work and film Mahabharata, and the ballets Le Voyage Nocturne and Neva. In 1988 he established the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble, originally named Fasi, to safeguard the classical repertoire of the sixteenth-century Ottoman Empire.
Erguner grew up in a household steeped in the same tradition. His father, Ulvi Erguner, and grandfather, Suleyman Erguner, both enjoyed reputations as master ney players. In addition to their direct instruction he absorbed further knowledge from senior musicians who frequented the family home during his childhood. His grasp of Turkish classical music deepened through sustained engagement with the Sufi brotherhoods.
He entered professional ranks in 1969 as a member of the Istanbul Radio Orchestra, then relocated to Paris six years afterward to pursue studies in architecture and musicology. The year after his arrival he contributed to Peter Brook’s film Meetings with Remarkable Men, shot on location in Afghanistan. He later resumed work with Brook by composing and performing the score for the theater piece and film Mahabharata.
Following a 1980 UNESCO-funded research period in Turkey, Erguner settled again in Paris and launched Mevlani, an institute devoted to classical Sufi music and teachings. Between 1986 and 1987 he made extended visits to Pakistan to record and document traditional music for Radio France and France Musique. In late 1987 he presented a program of Ottoman music at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
During 1988 Erguner joined Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ. That same year he and his brother issued the album The Mystic Flutes of Sufi, containing preludes drawn from Whirling Dervishes ceremonies. The siblings resumed their partnership in 1990 with the release of Sufi Music of Turkey. The next year saw three further albums: Turquie: Musique Soufi with Ilahi and Nefes N. Uzel, Oriental Dreams with Mahmoud Tebrizizadeh, and Gazel: Classical Sufi Music of the Ottomon Empire, credited to the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble among other artists. In 1997 Erguner recorded Chemins with Derya Turkan. Two years afterward he assembled the Kudsi Erguner Sufi-Jazz Project, featuring Christof Lauer, Michel Godard, and Marc Nauseef, and documented the collaboration on the album Ottomania.
Erguner grew up in a household steeped in the same tradition. His father, Ulvi Erguner, and grandfather, Suleyman Erguner, both enjoyed reputations as master ney players. In addition to their direct instruction he absorbed further knowledge from senior musicians who frequented the family home during his childhood. His grasp of Turkish classical music deepened through sustained engagement with the Sufi brotherhoods.
He entered professional ranks in 1969 as a member of the Istanbul Radio Orchestra, then relocated to Paris six years afterward to pursue studies in architecture and musicology. The year after his arrival he contributed to Peter Brook’s film Meetings with Remarkable Men, shot on location in Afghanistan. He later resumed work with Brook by composing and performing the score for the theater piece and film Mahabharata.
Following a 1980 UNESCO-funded research period in Turkey, Erguner settled again in Paris and launched Mevlani, an institute devoted to classical Sufi music and teachings. Between 1986 and 1987 he made extended visits to Pakistan to record and document traditional music for Radio France and France Musique. In late 1987 he presented a program of Ottoman music at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
During 1988 Erguner joined Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ. That same year he and his brother issued the album The Mystic Flutes of Sufi, containing preludes drawn from Whirling Dervishes ceremonies. The siblings resumed their partnership in 1990 with the release of Sufi Music of Turkey. The next year saw three further albums: Turquie: Musique Soufi with Ilahi and Nefes N. Uzel, Oriental Dreams with Mahmoud Tebrizizadeh, and Gazel: Classical Sufi Music of the Ottomon Empire, credited to the Kudsi Erguner Ensemble among other artists. In 1997 Erguner recorded Chemins with Derya Turkan. Two years afterward he assembled the Kudsi Erguner Sufi-Jazz Project, featuring Christof Lauer, Michel Godard, and Marc Nauseef, and documented the collaboration on the album Ottomania.
Albums
