Ercan Irmak was born in Eskişehir in 1956. He started playing kaval in his childhood. He has also played different wind instruments such as zurna, kaval, mızmar and shakuhachi, and worked with many famous artists. In 1980, he started playing ney, which was given by ney player Aka Gündüz Kutbay. As a soloist, Irmak has performed ney with many orchestras including Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, Bursa State Symphony Orchestra and CRR Symphony Orchestra. In 1999, he performed the first part of Mysticism Symphony, which was composed by İlyas Mirzayev, with Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra in Adana. Irmak also gave a concert with İlyas Mirzayev at the concert hall, which belongs to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition, he gave concerts of Classic Turkish Music and Anatolian melodies in Vienna. Irmak played Ney Concerto, which was composed by himself and Ilyas Mirzayev, with Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Saim Akçıl in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmit, Izmir, Bursa, Tokyo, Baku, Almaata, Bişkek, Taşkent, Selanik and Brussels. He has recorded ney music with different artists in many albums. He performed Mirzayev’s “Janus in Orient” with Güher & Süher Pekinel and the London Mozart Players Orchestra, conducted by Howard Girffiths in Hamburg, London and Istanbul. In 2006, Irmak played Ney Concert with Bursa State Symphony Orchestra which was conducted by Fahrettin Kerimov in Bursa, and with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra which was conducted by Naci Özgüç in Ankara. As a soloist, Irmak played Mirzayev’s “Üç Denizin Symphony” with Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra, which was conducted by Saim Akçıl in Brussels, Paris and Berlin. Irmak has prepared three albums: “Dergah”, “Ses ve Nefes” and “Aşk İmkansız”. As of today, he serves as a ney player in the State Modern Folk Music Ensemble. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.