Ahmet Koç

Ahmet Koç — Biography

Ahmet Koç is a Turkish bağlama player and musician born in 1968 in Istanbul. He works as a musicologist, arranger and bağlama artist affiliated with the State Modern Folk Music Ensemble under Turkey's Ministry of Culture. After entering the Istanbul Technical University Conservatory in 1979, he spent twelve years studying both folk and Western music there.

In 1995 he arranged the third installment of the eight-album Yedi Karanfil series, which reinterpreted classic Anatolian melodies, and later released the albums Yediveren Anadolu and Yol Türküleri. He played the bağlama on "Dinle", the Şebnem Paker song that gave Turkey its best-ever Eurovision Song Contest result to that point when it placed third in 1997. Over the years he has accompanied artists such as Tarkan, Zülfü Livaneli, Nazan Öncel, Mikis Theodorakis and Maria Farantouri, and has served as music director on albums by Edip Akbayram, Murat Göğebakan, Onur Akın, Cansu Koç and Murat Kekilli.

His 2005 album Paradoks, which reinterpreted Western classical and pop songs on the bağlama, was followed by the double-disc Sağanak in 2006 and by Sözün Bittiği Yer in 2007, regarded as one of his most popular records. He later returned with a new style on the album Renkli, featuring several guest vocalists, and continues to perform live across Europe while teaching bağlama and guitar. He is the brother of vocalist Cansu Koç.