Ozan Sari

Absorbing the spirit of a deep-rooted tradition from childhood, Ozan Sari stepped onto his musical journey at the age of four with baglama lessons he took from his father Veli Sari. Even in his first melodies, his exceptional talent for music was noticed by his family. He graduated with a “first-place” degree from the Uludag University State Conservatory, which he entered in 1999, with Johannes Brahms’s magnificent Violin Concerto.

One of the turning points of his artistic journey came with the CAKA – Cihat Aşkın and His Little Friends project, which he joined at the age of twelve. In addition to his studies that began with Cihat Aşkın, the living iconic name of the Turkish Violin School, he also took part in international master classes; in prestigious programs such as the Salzburg Mozarteum Academy and Crans Montana Classics, he studied with world-famous virtuosos such as Shlomo Mintz, Zakhar Bron, Dora Schwarzberg, Ani Schnarch and Victor Danchenko.

With the international concert career he began in 2012, he took the stage as a soloist on stages ranging from the Razgrad Philharmonic Orchestra to the Young Talent Festival, from Austria to Bulgaria, from Switzerland to Tunisia, from Georgia to Spain. In each of his performances, he blended the refinement and depth of classical Western music education with the heartfelt melodies of Anatolia.

For Ozan Sari, music is not merely the order of sounds, but at the same time the expression of a belonging, a geography and a memory. With this perspective, in 2013 he founded the “2Saz 1Ses” group together with baglama artist Mahmut Cemal Sari, reinterpreting Anatolian music with a previously untried understanding. In this original project, in which he brought together the violin and the baglama, he united tradition with the modern, and the folk with the universal.

Having brought new breath to our country’s artistic life as the conceptual pioneer and founder of formations such as The Violins of the City and the Bursa Chamber Orchestra, Sari teaches violin at the Bursa Uludag University State Conservatory. He continues his musical journey (since 2017) with the special violin made for him by Ahmet Ali Çakır, and will use this violin throughout his life.