Traditional Music From TurkeyThe celebratory concert entitled "Seher - Traditional Music from Turkey and India" brings together a rare ensemble of musicians including Turkish kemenche and tanbur master Ihsan Özgen, Indian bansuri player and composer Deepak Ram, classical guitarist Mesut Özgen and Indian table player Debobryo Sarkar.
Considered the top kemenche player in Turkey, Ihsan Özgen has developed unique and novel methods of playing his instrument. Deepak Ram is the senior disciple of the celebrated flautist, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, and has been captivating audiences world wide with his bansuri (Indian flute). The members of this ensemble will bring their own unique talents and broad experience to improvisations based on the compositions of classical Ottoman composers and Indian ragas. Ihsan Özgen will display his virtuosity on kemenche and tanbur and Deepak Ram on bansuri as these gifted musicians fuse the musical traditions of their respective traditions as well as display their own unique talents.
Mr. Özgen has been invited this year by U.C. Santa Cruz as a Regents Scholar. During his stay at U.C. Santa Cruz, Özgen is teaching theory and practice of Turkish music. Mr. Özgen has visited San Francisco Bay Area last year, presenting Turkish classical music in several concerts as well as giving a concert with Indian sitar master Shujaat Hussain Khan.
Mesut Ozgen"This is a great virtuoso who will dazzle audiences for years to come" - Benjamin Verdery, Yale University
"...an extremely gifted guitarist" - Rosalyn Tureck, Julliard School
"...moving performance by Mesut Özgen" - James Reid, Soundboard
"...masterfully performed by guitarist Mesut Özgen" - John Mangan, Soundboard
Mesut Özgen has been playing guitar since he heard the magical sound of Andrés Segovia in his early twenties. Segovia's Bach recording and Paco Peña's flamenco strumming had an enourmous effect on his so-called "scientific mind." Even though he still continued studying medicine, guitar has become a passion for him.
After growing up in a musical family with world-class musicians such as his uncle Ihsan Özgen, Mesut completed his medical degree in 1984 and worked as a doctor seven years. He began playing guitar in 1981 while pursuing his study at the School of Medicine. In 1991, when he met the American virtuoso Benjamin Verdery in the International Paco Peña Guitar Festival in Cordoba, Spain, Mesut admitted that guitar was his call. Ben has changed his life by inviting Mesut to Yale School of Music to study with him.
He has appeared in many festivals and concert halls as a soloist, concerto and ensemble player, including Cordoba, Portland, New Haven, Seattle, Phoenix, Monterey, Istanbul, and Ankara.
After seven years of graduate guitar studies (three years at Yale and four years at Arizona State University), Mesut moved to Santa Cruz and has been on the guitar faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz since 1998. Besides teaching, he has been giving solo recitals regularly, writing solo, duo, and ensemble music for guitar and other instruments based on or influenced by traditional Turkish music.
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