Ömer Faruk Tekbilek

Ömer Faruk Tekbilek — Biography

Turkish musician and composer Ömer Faruk Tekbilek, credited abroad as Omar Faruk Tekbilek, was born in Adana in 1951 and is known internationally. He has a Turkish father and an Egyptian mother. He plays ney, kaval, zurna, bağlama, oud and percussion, and also works with electronics. Only the year of his birth is known.

He began on the kaval at eight while studying to become an imam, learned his instruments from an uncle who ran a music shop, and was performing professionally by twelve. He moved to Istanbul in 1967 and became a sought-after session player, and his contact with Mevlevi circles shaped his musical outlook. On a first international tour at twenty he met his American wife, emigrating five years later.

In the United States he founded the group Sultans with Egyptian and Greek musicians and a relative, described variously as his brother or brother-in-law. His 1988 meeting with producer Brian Keane yielded six acclaimed records. He has worked with Don Cherry, Ginger Baker, Ofra Haza and Arto Tunçboyacıyan, and calls his music "cosmic". He is credited as the first ney player to add an eighth hole to the instrument.