Orhan Gencebay

Orhan Gencebay is a Turkish musician, balama virtuoso, composer, singer, arranger, music producer, music director, and actor.

Gencebay was born in the coastal town of Samsun onAugust 1944. He is of Crimean Tatar descent.He started learning music at the age of six, taking violin and mandolin lessons from Emin Tarak who was an old Classical Musician from the Ukraine Conservatoire. At the age of seven, he started playing the balama , and continued taking traditional Turkish folk music lessons. At age ten, he created his first composition. At age 13, he started playing the tambur, an instrument often used in Turkish classical music to improve himself in the theoretical and practical details of Turkish classical music.

Source: Wikipedia