He was born in Adana, one of the largest towns of Turkey, in 1965. In his early childhood, he began to be interested in Turkish Classical Music and Turkish Sufi Music. He learned the musical theory and chanting from Ali Intizam and ney, kudum and repertory from Master Ahmet Polatoz.

He got admitted in the Town Conservatory of Adana and worked with the conservatory ensemble as ney player and soloist. At this time he also worked with Avni Anıl, the famous contemporary Turkish classical music composer.

He joined the Ankara Classical Turkish Music State Choir in 1986 succeeding in the contest by Ministry of Culture.

Mr. Cevikoglu performed many concerts and participated in TV programmes as soloist and ney and kudum player. He conducted various choirs and worked as teacher and lecturer at the State Conservatories of several universities and Ministry of Education.

He worked as soloist and assistant to the artistic director of the Ministry of Culture's Konya Sufi Music State Ensemble between the years 1990-1997 , the most outstanding ensemble which performs Sufi music and whirling dances in Turkey and all over the world.

He immensely benefited from such great masters like Tahir Karagoz, Kani Karaca, and Ahmet Hatipoglu.

In 1993 he was selected to join the “Tanrikorur Soloists”, an ensemble founded by Cinucen Tanrikorur, the late oud virtuoso, an outstanding composer, musicologist and artist of Turkish classical music.

He obtained his master's degree in music education from Selcuk University in 1997.

Mr.Cevikoglu has made various research work on Turkish Military and Sufi Music.

In 1990 he wrote the script of the documentary Turkish Military Music and was its music director which was commissioned by the Turkish State Radio and Television. The documentary was broadcast by several other TV channels in European countries. He was the music director and programme adviser for another documentary titled “Rumi and the Whirling Dervishes” in 2000. He also took part in it as a soloist and played the instruments of ney and kudum. This documentary was awarded as the best documentary of the year 2000 by the Union of Turkish Writers. It has been publicized in VCD and VHS formats by the Turkish State Radio and Television.

Mr.Cevikoglu has represented Turkey abroad on many occasions. These include: Australia (Sydney 1987), Iraq (Baghdad, Babylon 1989), USA (New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts 1991), Spain (Barcelona 1991), India (New Delhi, Agra 1991), Spain (Sevilla 1992), France (Paris, Lille 1994), Netherlands (Amsterdam, Nijmegen, Groeningen, Eindhoven, The Hague, Utrecht, Arnhem, Rotterdam 1995), Belgium (Berchem, Kortrijck, Hasselt 1995), Germany (Mannheim, Singen 1995), Australia (Adelaide 1996), China (Beijing, Shanghai 2001) and Northern Cyprus Turkish Republic (Lefkosha 2003).

Now he is a soloist at the Ministry of Culture and works as teacher at the Department of Turkish Classical Music at Kocatepe University State Conservatory, Afyon. 

timucinc@turkmusikisi.com