Niyazi Sayın

Niyazi Sayın — Biography

Niyazi Sayın was a ney master regarded as one of the last great voices of the Istanbul school. He joined the outlook of Tanburi Cemil Bey with the style of his teacher Halil Dikmen and brought new fingerings and techniques to the instrument, so much so that ney players speak of a time before him and a time after him. Known as the "Kutub" (pole star) of ney players, he died on 8 October 2025 at the age of 98.

He first met music as a child through the Tanburi Cemil Bey records his father played; as a teenager he played the harmonica and spent some time in the Fenerbahçe youth side as a footballer. Meeting Mustafa Düzgünman in 1947 drew him toward devotional music and Sufism, he bought his first ney in 1948, and from 1949 he studied weekly with Halil Dikmen for fifteen years. He worked at Istanbul Radio from 1954 to 1956, sat on the performing ensemble of the Istanbul Municipal Conservatory from 1956 to 1969, and later became a lecturer and head of the wind instruments department at the Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory.

For many years he performed duets with tanbur player Necdet Yaşar; the pair taught for a year at Seattle University in 1980 and gave concerts in Britain, Germany and France. He also kept up ebru (paper marbling) and photography. In 2014 he received the Presidential Culture and Arts Grand Award. After his death the President and state institutions issued condolences, his funeral left from the Sandıkçı Şeyh Edhem Baba Tekke in Üsküdar, and in July 2026 a ney workshop bearing his name opened in Bilecik.