Mehmet Polat is een vakkundige ud speler, componist, ensemble leider en solist die inmiddels vele internationale tours op zijn naam heeft staan. Van Afrika tot India, Perzië tot de Balkan, van modern tot jazz, hij combineert verschillende muziekstijlen met zijn Alevi spirituele, Anatolische volks- en Ottomaans klassieke muziekachtergrond. Via improvisatie, eigen composities en zijn blik op de verscheidenheid van muziekstijlen is Mehmet constant op zoek naar nieuwe muzikale paden en inspiratie. Na vele jaren van onderzoek, heeft hij een eigen techniek ontwikkeld om verder te kunnen kijken dan de beperkingen van zijn eens zo traditionele instrument. Met zijn nieuwe techniek voor de linkerhand speelt hij meer moderne en verder ontwikkelde muziekstukken. Ook heeft hij een eigen ud ontwikkeld met twee extra bassnaren om de reikwijdte en functie van zijn instrument te vergroten.
Mehmet woont sinds 2007 in Amsterdam.
English:
was born in Urfa, Turkey and raised in an environment of Alevi Sufism. He started his musical life by playing baglama by the age of 5. Till the age of 17 he has stayed busy with learning the music tradition of the city center of Urfa, together with Anatolian folk music from other cities and Alevi music, by learning them from the local masters.
By the age of 17 he moved to Istanbul to study Classical Turkish Music, therefore he started learning ud. After 5 years of intensive practicing with periodical lessons from the ud masters from Istanbul, he started with studying in Yildiz Tech. University’s Classical Turkish Music department. After 4 years of studying there in 2007 Mehmet moved to the Netherlands for Master studies in Indian music at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Since then he has been living in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Mehmet has always been interested in learning the music traditions from the other cultures, to get more influenced and to enrich his musicality. While he has been learning the music from Persia to India, Arabic to Flamenco, Balkan to Jazz, he was going advance also with mastering the Turkish Makam system and involving in the new researches for defining an alternative theory for its microtonality.
He has invested years on expanding his technical skills, to re-define the technical limits of his exotic sounding & traditional instrument. He has checked out also the many other string instruments like guitar, violin, sarod and imported their technical fascilities and musical influences in his ud playing.
He is one of the founders of Arifa quartet since 2010, together with Sjahin During(NL), Alex Simu(RO) and Osama Abdulrasol(IR) -in 2012 Arifa was reformed by inviting Franz von Chossy(DE) in the place of Osama-. Further he has worked as a composer and soloist with prestigious musicians and orchestras as: Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Metropole Orchestra, The Black Pencil Project, played world première performances of Theo Loevendie and Maarten Altena from Amsterdam. Further with Aynur, Oya Ergün, Mustafa Olgan, Leszek Hefi Wiswinowski, Praful and Michel Banabila.
In 2013 he has formed Mehmet Polat Trio together with Zoumana Diarra(Mali) on Kora and Sinan Arat(Turkey) on Turkish Ney. With this project he is aiming to fuze his medolicity together with Balkan rhythms which are transformed into an African approach of grooving.
Mehmet has performed as a soloist in several prestigious concert-halls in the Netherlands and abroad like Concertgebouw, Muziekgebouw and Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Ataturk Culture Centre (Istanbul), Cemal Resit Rey (Istanbul). Toured to Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Dubai, Egypt, Germany, Hungary, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, USA, Canada, The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Romania, Spain and Turkey.