The Sultans, under the direction of Emrah Kotan, is a recently created ensemble of drummers, instrumentalists, and Belly-Dancer, devoted to the performance and preservation to traditional songs and dances of Turkey.

Emrah Kotan, founder and director of the ensemble is a native of Turkey.  He has performed at jazz festivals in Montreaux, Paris, Antib and Montpellier in France, and in Istanbul and Izmir in Turkey with jazz quartets led by the renowned Turkish pianist Fazil Say and the traditional Turkish flutist Kudsi Erguner.  His training on traditional Turkish instruments began at the age of eight.  His formal education in western European art music began at Ankara State Conservatory at the age of eleven.  Currently, he is a jazz studies and percussion major at Georgia State University.  The repertoire of the ensemble is representative of traditional, classical, and popular music and dance of various regions and ethnic groups in Turkey.  These include selections from the Black Sea region, middle Anatolia (the indigenous name for Turkey) Gypsy music, Arabic music, and the city of Istanbul.  The most unique elements of traditional Turkish music include instrumental melodic pitch inflections symbolic of chant and the use of rhythms in a variety of meters, for example 7/8, 9/8, 6/8, 5/8, 4/4 and 2/4.

For more info please contact Emrah Kotan at: [email protected]