Research
As a Doctoral student in ethnomusicology at the University of California, Santa Barbara my current research is on the centrality of improvisational practices (taksim) in the definition of classical Turkish melodic modes (makam-s), and on changes in these over the course of the twentieth century.

My Master's research consisted in examining representations of minority and multiculturally-created music cultures of Turkey and the former Ottoman Empire, as well as learning the theory and practice of Turkish/Ottoman and eastern Arab makam/maqam-based musics.

The culmination of that research, centering on the cümbüs (a twelve-string fretless banjo-like instrument - see link, and photos above and below), resulted in a master's thesis entitled, "The Cümbüs as Instrument of 'the Other' in Modern Turkey," filed January 2007. Many thanks to all of you who helped me pull that together, and thanks also to everyone who expressed an interest in the project by contacting me through this website. In fact, in part due to your responses, I am linking here a short list of addenda to the work.

If you would like a copy of the thesis in PDF format, please e-mail me, I'd be happy to send you one. Your feedback and further input is very welcome.

Performance
I currently play cümbüs with the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, dumbek, oud and baglamás with Mesógeios, a Greek rembétika and smyrnéika band, and sing/play Sephardic music in Flor de Kanela (cümbüs, oud, bouzouki). I also study oud and maqam/makam with Scott Marcus and Necati Çelik, and have had informal lessons with Nasr Musa, Haig Manookian, Sinan Erdemsel and Mehmet Emin Bitmez.

NOTE:
Currently the UCSB server on which this website is hosted is not allowing links to audio files, but I am leaving links to some here while the administrators work out whether or not there should be exceptions to that rule for students whose research includes audio representations. Sorry for the inconvenience.