SJAHIN DURING – Afro Anatolian percussion
Sjahin was born in 1972 Amsterdam, raised in Istanbul for the first six years of his life before moving back to the Netherlands to the small island of Texel in the North Sea. Sjahin’s meticulous attention to his art and profession runs in the family. His grandfather once led the second violin section at Amsterdam’s world renowned Concertgebouw Orkest, while his father is still active as woodworker and luthier. Sjahin’s mother is a ceramist, one brother an archaeologist and his younger brother a Gypsy jazz guitarist living in Italy.
Sjahin is a permanent resident of the Netherlands where he makes a living as a musician, having founded and led several groups that include Bayuba Cante, Turqumstances and at present Tarhana and Afro Anatolian Tales and most recently Arifa. He is a producer and teacher of world music, specialized in percussion.
During has studied and performed on five continents, learning from masters as far afield as Havana, Cuba to Istanbul, Turkey as well as India, Spain and Africa. The percussion instruments he masters range from bata drums, to congas, cajon, udu, various frame drums, and darbuka, riq to kanjira.
At a certain point in career Sjahin felt the need to take a new musical approach . In order to develop a different sound and rhythmical concept that embraced other rhythms which offer a wide range of contrast, he decided to go back to Istanbul and study Anatolian and Near Eastern rhythms and instruments. Having done so he continues to study with great masters, constantly integrating his new vocabulary into wider musical contexts with tailor made music formations that all bear the mark of his own distinctive sound and percussion setup.
Sjahin During has toured and given concerts in Canada, Morocco, Germany, Italy, Belgium, France, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Egypt, Cuba, Iceland, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia, Rajasthan India, Oman, Iran, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Bahrain, Dubai, Mexico and Holland.
Festivals & venues:
North Sea Jazz Festival, Womex, Big Bang Drum Festival, Percussion Festival Havana-Cuba, Nuits de Afrique – Montreal, Vancouver Folk Festival, Rhythms of the World – Toronto, Halifax Atlantic Jazz Festival, Tradition du Monde – Quebec, Banff Art Centre, Istanbul Akbank Jazz Festival, Babylon, ODTU Ankara, Rajaststan Folk Festival, Ollin Kan Mexico, Dubai Jazz, Cairo Jazz Festival, Music Meeting Festival, Paradiso, Bimhuis, Reiziger in Muziek TV, Concertgebouw-Amsterdam, Rasa, Melkweg, de Doelen, Vredeburg, Heineken Music Hall.
Worked with:
Arto Tunçboyaciyan, Miguel “Anga” Diaz, Simon Phillips, Pete Lockett, Carlo Rizzo, Baba Sisokko Martin Gort, Naseer Shamma, Edmare Castaneda, Pancho Quinto, Jos Machtel, Martha Galarraga, Amalia Pedrosa, Stefan Kruger, Jorge Reyes, Hasan Esen, Engin Arslan, Alex Simu, Lilian Veira, Osama Abdulrasol, Ghalia Benali, Bart Fermie, Mola Sylla, Arnold Dooyeweerd, Slobodan Trkulja, Franz von Chossy, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui(Les Ballets C. de la B.), Aike Dirkzwager, Rene Groothof, Aynur, Suren Asaduryan, the Gypsy’s from Rajasthan, Pasha Karami, Izaline Calister & Theodosii Spassov.
2007 winner of the GOUDEN KREKEL (Golden Cricket), the annual Dutch national award for best children’s theatre production, for the production of “Menheer Ibrahim & de bloemen van de koran” (Mr. Ibrahim & the Flowers of the Koran) with Rene Groothof, directed by Aike Dirkzwager.
Over the last 12 years Sjahin has been teaching children, amateurs and professionals. Private lessons as well as workshops in percussion and various concepts of non-western rhythm. Sjahin teaches currently at the Utrecht conservatory master students non-western rhythm & technique’s.
Guest teacher at conservatories off: Amsterdam, Utrecht, Alkmaar, Arhnem, Zwolle, Istanbul, Damascus, Teheran and Tunis.