Atakan Sari (kemençe and piano)

Sari was born in Izmir, Turkey in April 1981, and like his band mates, received his earliest musical training from his father Mahmut Sari, an accomplished concert pianist who had studied at L’École de Normale in Paris. Realizing piano was his great passion after hearing the famous Martin Berkofsky recording of Liszt at the early age of fifteen; he studied the instrument with Can Coker for two years. In 1999, he won the first prize at the Young Talents Competition organized by the Ministry of Culture in Turkey. Sari’s life was changed by a fortunate encounter in 2000, when Berkofsky visited Turkey to perform and give a lecture in a master’s class. Upon hearing Sari play, Berkofsky arranged to bring the nineteen-year-old back to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship. In 2002, Sari began his studies with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music. A year later, he was to record with Berkofsky himself. Together, they performed the première recording of a concerto Hovhannes had composed for Berkofsky for two pianos and an orchestra. In 2004, Berkofsky and Sari performed this concerto again in Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow.