M. Hakkı Özçimi

He was born in 1980 in Konya, Turkey. He completed his primary education at Gazi Mustafa Kemal Paşa Primary School in Konya and his secondary and high school education at Beylerbeyi High School in Istanbul. In 2007, he graduated from the Department of Classical Turkish Music, Division of Tanbur, at Afyon Kocatepe University State Conservatory. Coming from a musical family, he began his training at an early age under his father, Neyzen Muhammed Sadreddin Özçimi, a prominent artist of the Turkish Ministry of Culture. He later studied under renowned tanbur artist Kağan Ulaş and Özer Özel, a lecturer at Yıldız Technical University. During his secondary school years, he performed as a vocalist (hanende) in the Çemberlitaş Musiki Society. Throughout his university years and beyond, he participated in concerts across the world as a tanbur performer, collaborating with personal and ethnic music ensembles as well as various Ministry of Culture choirs. He performed in approximately 32 countries, including multiple states in the USA and Germany, as well as Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, France, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Greece, Albania, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pakistan, Singapore, the UK, Qatar, Croatia, Serbia, Morocco, Tunisia, Poland, Belgium, Lebanon, and Bulgaria. Notably, he performed extensively across nearly every region of France in concerts combining Renaissance music with Classical Turkish Music. In 2007, he began his official post as a tanbur artist in the Bursa State Classical Turkish Music Choir under the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. In 2016, he was reassigned to Istanbul and worked for three years in the Istanbul State Classical Turkish Music Ensemble. Since then, he has been continuing his work in the Istanbul Sufi Ceremonies Ensemble, affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Alongside his artistic career, Özçimi continues to teach tanbur and mentor numerous students in this field. He is married and the father of two daughters.