Türkü Bar, Istanbul style bar-cafe

The Türkü Bar is an important aspect of contemporary Istanbul nightlife: the massive influx of people from all over of Turkey to the metropolis has enriched the musical life of the city. The Türkü Bars are very popular in Istanbul; new ones have opened all over the city.
A visit to a Türkü Bar is now possible in the Netherlands.
In a Türkü Bar you are entertained with Turkish folk music and songs from different regions, but in a modern, urban setting. An evening in one of these cafés entails a delightful mix of nostalgia and contemporary music enjoyment, accompanied by drinks and the famous Turkish meze snacks.
As well as famous folk musicians, a large number of the performers are young musicians from the current generation of students who learn traditional folk music, but add to it their personal, new interpretations.

Cancellation of  Musa Eroğlu performance

The postponed Türkü Bar planned for Saturday 14 June in Amsterdam's Podium Mozaiek (Amsterdam) has been cancelled due to the lengthy illness of Musa Eroğlu. The performance in WMDC (Rotterdam) has also been cancelled.

Okan Murat Ozturk, Hilde De Clerq and Neva

Traditional love songs from Anatolia

During the Türkü Bar on Friday 13 February 2009 in Podium Mozaiek, the duo Okan Murat Öztürk and Hilde De Clercq performed love songs from all regions of Turkey, complemented with instrumental pieces and dancing. Okan Murat Öztürk performs the songs with a warm voice and accompanies himself on the baglama or Turkish long-necked lute. De Clercq accompanies him on a variety of percussion instruments, including bendir (frame drum), darbuka (goblet drum), spoons and davul (big drum). A trio from the group Neva will give a groovy performance after the intermission, giving the audience the chance to groove to the rhythms of Turkish dance music.

In addition to this, the evening includes the presentation of Hans de Zeeuw's  book 'The Turkish long-necked lute or baglama', which comes with one of Okan Murat Öztürk's CDs.   Hans de Zeeuw was also the speaker at the Diner Culturel. Read more about Hans de Zeeuw's book here.

Pınar Sağ and Tolga Sağ Turkey Now

Türkü bar-cafe with Pinar en Tolga SagOur first guests in the Türkü Bar are two popular representatives of Turkish folk music, singer Pınar Sağ and bağlama maestro Tolga Sağ. The Türkü Bar featured in the program of the 2008 Turkey Now! festival.

Pınar en Tolga Sağ were accompanied by the musicians from the folk opera Dilek by Theatre Rast: Cebrail Kalın (shepherd’s pipe, reed flute, folk oboe), Mehmet Yalgın (lute, banjo), Uğur Göregen Hogir (percussion), Murat Daşlık (violin) and Abdullah Şakar (bass guitar) plus the ‘Turkish Idol’ Gülseven Medar.

Pinar Sag, the now popular singer from the famous Sag family of musicians, was born in Istanbul in 1979 and has played the bağlama from the age of thirteen. In the 1990’s she studied at the Conservatory of the ITU University of Istanbul. In 2002 she married the young bağlama maestro Tolga Sag. She has recorded several albums. She is often asked to perform in various Turkish radio and television shows, previously had her own music programme and does tours worldwide.

Tolga Sag was born in 1973 in Istanbul. He started playing “saz” at the early age of seven. After high school he went on to study chemistry at Yildiz Technical University. After two years he decided this was not the right field for him. After and audition he was admitted to the University of Marmara.  His induction into the world of professional music was in 1995, when he performed a song on the album “Umut” by his father, the bağlama virtuoso Arif Sag. He later released the album “Türküler Sevdamiz” together with Erdal Erzincan and Ismail Ozden; in 1999 he made his solo debut with “Yol”. In 2000 Tolga Sag opened the A.S.M, the Arif Sag Muzic Academy for talented students.

This Türkü Bar was held in Amsterdam’s Podium Mozaïek.