Necdet Yaşar

Necdet Yaşar (Turkish pronunciation: [ˈnedʒdet ˈjaʃaɾ]; 1930 - October 24, 2017) was a Turkish tanbur lute player and teacher. A founding member of the Istanbul State Turkish Music Ensemble, he performed throughout the world as a cultural ambassador for Turkey and taught twice at the University of Washington (USA). In 1991, the Turkish government awarded him the title of "National Artist".

In 1991, the Turkish government awarded him the title of "National Artist" (Devlet Sanatçısı).

In 1988, Yaşar was a founding member of the Istanbul State Turkish Music Ensemble. He directed it until 1995 when he retired.

In 1981 he met Alan Prosser from England. He agreed to teach Alan and his children the complete makam list and system. This happened over the next 7 years. All the lessons were tape recorded. Yaşar later asked Alan to help preserve the true knowledge of the makams and the Traditional Turkish Art Music Society of Great Britain was started. Yaşar also asked Alan and his children to play a recital on Turkish Television to help with the revival of interest in the ancient makam system. As well as this he asked Alan to write to the Turkish Culture Minister to help establish Yaşar's music group officially.

Professor Robert Garfias, Director of the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington (Seattle, Washington State, USA)--on the recommendation of graduate student Karl Signell—appointed Yaşar as Visiting Artist for 1972–73 academic year [Signell 1977, p. xv]. Garfias again appointed Yaşar, together with the noted ney master Niyazi Sayın as University of Washington Visiting Artists for 1980-81 UW dept. of ethnomusicology, "Visiting Artists by Country".

In 1972, Yaşar and Signell attended the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM) where Yaşar in effect introduced the largely unknown Turkish Classical Music to ethnomusicologists by talking and performing on the tanbur [Tanburi Necdet Yaşar: Anılar—Dostlar. New York: Brainstorm, 2009, p. 263.]

In 1930, Necdet Yaşar was born into a Turkish family in Nizip, a small town near Gaziantep, Turkey. He graduated from the School of Economics, Istanbul University.