Ismail Hakki Fencioglu was born in Turkey, in 1968, into a family with a rich musical tradition. He started playing oud professionally at the Municipal Conservatory of Bursa, in 1986. A year later he enrolled in the department of chant of State Conservatory of Istanbul Technical University. He worked with Alaeddin Yavasca, Bekir Sitki Sezgin and Tulin Yakarcelik, and he specialized in classical Turkish music singing techniques. While still a student, he gave many performances on television together with his teachers and solo. He was a member of the State Classical Turkish Music Chorus conducted by Nevzat Atlig. After earning his Bachelor’s degree from the Conservatory, he started working as an arranger and composer in various audio recording studios.  He is also a master builder of musical instruments. Since his arrival in Canada in 2001 he has been conducting Turkish music choruses in Ottawa and in Montréal, that presented 17 successful joint concerts so far. Ismail Hakki Fencioglu regularly performs with his own bands Fenci’s Ensemble founded 2003, and Duo Turco, as well as with Jason Rosenblatt (Shtreiml), Okto Echo. He performed with the renowned Turkish musician Erkan Ogur at the “Festival du Monde Arabe” and with Karen Young at the “Festival de Musique Multi-Montréal”. Since 2006 he has been performing  with the Peruvian artist Lucho Quequzana. He participated with cirque du soleil  and has various recordings on Cirque du Soleil’s Cds.    canadian oud shop