- Soner Özbilen
Soner Özbilen (born 1947) is a Turkish folk
singer , conductor, andcompiler .Early life
He was born in
Boğazlıyan ,Yozgat in 1947 to an immigrant family fromKosovo .He finished primary and middle school in Boğazlıyan, high school in
Istanbul . Afterwards he studied at the Academy of Economy and Finance. Showing great interest in music in the school choir, he attended the Public Music Education Centre in Kadıköy andAksaray Music Society for a while as a pupil ofOrhan Dağlı ,Nida Tüfekçi ,Neriman Tüfekçi , andYücel Paşmakçı . In 1966 he won the folk music singer competition organised byTurkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) and became a trainee singer. During the three-year training period he learned a lot from the Turkish Music masters such as Nida Tüfekçi, Neriman Tüfekçi,Halil Bedii Yönetken andAhmet Kutsi Tecer . As his training ended in 1969, he was admitted to Turkish Folk Music Group in TRT Istanbul.Career
Influenced by Nida Tüfekçi (also from Yozgat),
Çekiç Ali (from Kırşehir),Ahmet Gazi Ayhan (from Kayseri),Hacı Taşan (fromKeskin ),Refik Başaran (from Ürgüp) andMuharrem Ertaş (from Kırşehir); Soner Özbilen developed his own style focusing onRumeli songs for the last ten years.Along with appearing regularly in concerts and TRT radio-TV programmes, he performed in festivals in many regions of
Turkey . He took part in International Music and Folk Dance Festivals organized in Macedonia, France, Spain, Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Libya, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Russia and Finland.Soner Özbilen, who has contributed to Turkish Folk Music repertory by compiling songs from several regions of Turkey, is still working as a singer and as a conductor for TRT.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.