Aytaç Doğan

Aytaç Doğan — Biography

Turkish kanun player Aytaç Doğan stands out for his single-plectrum technique and distinctive style, and is regarded as one of Turkey's leading kanun soloists. A founding member of Taksim Trio, he has more recently reached audiences abroad through a partnership with the musician Mareechi Asu.

He took up music at thirteen, on a kanun his grandfather brought home. A year later, while İbrahim Tatlıses was shooting a film in Bursa, he impressed the singer and performed with him that same evening, then kept working in Tatlıses's orchestra. He then settled in Istanbul and played on albums by various popular artists. Meeting Mısırlı Ahmet changed his course: through Ahmet he was introduced to kanun players in Cairo, Egyptian musicians invited him there, and from then on one foot of his working life was always in the Arab world.

His meeting with the bağlama player İsmail Tunçbilek grew into a long collaboration, and in 2007 they formed Taksim Trio with the clarinettist Hüsnü Şenlendirici. His first solo album, Deva, was released in 2013, and a second album of thirteen pieces followed in 2018. The Kanun Resitali series and Taksim Trio 2 are also part of his discography. He has developed his own playing style by using the instrument's tuning levers in a way of his own.