Archives West Finding Aid

Necdet Yaşar (1930 - 2017) was a tanbur lute player and teacher, from Nizip, a small town near Gaziantep, Turkey. He graduated from the School of Economy, Istanbul University in 1953. As a student he first played bağlama before switching to tanbur. He played tanbur as a soloist or in a group in many foreign countries: United States, Canada, England, France, Holland, Belgium, Finland, South Korea and Israel. From 1972 to 1973 and 1980 to 81, Yaşar was a resident artist of Ethnomusicology at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, where he gave lectures on the makam system of Ottoman Classical Music. Yaşar also performed as a tanbur artist and an ambassador of Turkish Classical Music with small or large ensembles including his own "The Necdet Yaşar Ensemble" in Europe, East Asia and North America. Yaşar is noted for his command of the Turkish makam melodic modes, his influential tanbur techniques, and the construction of his taksim improvisations.

Ali Ekber Çiçek (1935 – 2006) was a folk musician from Erzincan, Turkey. He attended Alevi gatherings called Cem, where he became familiar with playing baglama. Throughout his professional career, Ali Ekber Çiçek compiled more than 400 Turkish folk songs and made them known publicly.

Arif Sağ (1945-), from Erzurum, Turkey, is a singer, bağlama virtuoso, and leading figure in modern Turkish folk music. Sağ is also a former MP in the Turkish parliament, and an academic. Sağ studied bağlama with Kumaş Dede in Erzincan for 7 years before studying bağlama with Nida Tüfekçi at the Aksaray Musiki Cemiyeti in Istanbul. Sağ has performed bağlama and composed over 200 works for various artists. He taught Turkish folk music and bağlama at the Istanbul State Turkish Music Conservatory in 1975-1982. In 1982 he founded Arif Sağ Music, where he taught more than 40.000 students. Sağ served as a member of parliament in 1987-1991.