Biography
Born in 1964 in Istanbul, Turkey, he entered the State Conservatory of Istanbul at age eleven, where his training centered on the Turkish classical repertoire, mastery of the ud, and Western classical music along with composition. After graduating with honours he joined the faculty while completing his bachelor’s degree, and during those years he also appeared regularly on local television. He represented Turkey at an international festival in Poland, and ensembles as well as orchestras presented numerous works he had written. Once he received his BA, Beken joined other leading figures in Turkish classical music to establish the State Turkish Music Ensemble. At the same time he began scoring productions for Turkish television, radio, and ballet troupes, earning multiple awards for his soundtrack contributions. In 1989 he relocated to the United States to pursue ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, later serving as Executive Director of the Centre for Turkish Music. Rounder Records asked him to assemble Masters Of Turkish Music Volume Two, an anthology drawn from early-twentieth-century recordings, and he subsequently made his own debut album for the label, The Art Of The Turkish Ud. The recording presented solo ud interpretations of Turkish classical pieces, demonstrating his command of the instrument through an unexpected range of moods and tempos within a single-instrument format.
Albums