Necati Çelik was born in Konya in 1955. He began playing bağlama at the age of seven. In the 1970s he started playing oud. In 1973 as a oud player, he attended the Mevlana Memorial Ceremony, where he met renowned artists such as Saadettin Heper, Aka Gündüz Kutbay, Kadri Şençalar and Vinuçen Tanrukorur. In 1975 Çelik established his own private music school in Konya and taught oud to many students. In 1983 he founded the Turkish Music Ensemble in the Konya Municipality. In the same period he gave his first solo recital in Konya.
In 1985 Çelik taught oud at the Music Department of Selcuk University in Konya. In the next year he performed as an oud player with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Izmir State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble. In 1987 he gave eight concerts with the Izmir State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble in Tunis.
Çelik has given numerous concerts with Tambour player Necdet Yaşar in Turkey and abroad. He has also performed with world famous musicians including Zakir Hussain, Mickey Hart, Ross Daly, Christopher Carnes, Ali Akbar Khan and Habib Khan, and has given concerts and recorded CDs with them. In 1993 Çelik went to the United States and gave oud classes and recitals in California and New Mexico. Every August, he has given Turkish music and oud classes at the Middle Eastern Music Camp in Mendecino. Çelik has released several albums such as "Yasemin," "Classic Saz Trio" and "Oud-Kanun Duo." He currently performs as an active member of the State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble in Istanbul.
Reference: idtmt.org, oud.eclipse.co.uk |