He was born in Urfa in 1950. During his primary and secondary education in various cities -because of his father’s civil cervant post- he had his first music lessons from his family. Then he completed his music education at Istanbul Municipal Conservatory and at Üsküdar Music Society where he was educated by Emin Ongan who is known as a valuable master. Up to 1991, he continued his musical life with various records and stage works together with his artistry at Istanbul Radio.

In 1991, he was appointed to Istanbul Historical Turkish Music Ensemble as the General Director. He is a “State Artist” since 1998. He performed in some musical documentary movies like “Hacı Arif Bey”, “Aliş” and “Hafiz Yusuf Efendi”. He represented our country at the Asian Music Festival in Singapore.

He is sharing musical accumulation with art lovers; by attending the commemoration of Mevlana since 1980, the Istanbul Festival since 1984, by performing classical and mystic music concerts called “Güldeste” in homeland and abroad; from Tokyo to San Francisco. He got lots of awards as a performer and a television programmer. He made a mystic music album including 5 CDs called “Ateş-i Aşk”, one of them includes the works of Sultans called “Padishah Compositors” and one mystic music album is called “İlahiyat-ı Kenan”. He performed in these albums with his ensemble where he works as a soloist and the General Director at the same time.



In 2002 he released a classical Turkish music album called “Rüya (Dream)”. He directed and presented a music program called “Şarkılar Seni Söyler” at a private television channel for about four years; he was also the soloist. He still continues to make programs to TRT Istanbul Television with the ensemble. He participated both in the preparation of music demonstrations called “Lyrical History” and “Tolerance Empire” and the concerts as a soloist with the ensemble.

Ahmet Özhan as "Dervish"