Selim Sesler

Selim Sesler — Biography

Selim Sesler was born in 1957 in the Keşan district of Edirne province, into a family of zurna players who had emigrated from Drama, Greece; the population exchange had brought them first to İbriktepe village, and later the family moved to Keşan's Yenimescit neighborhood. He took up the zurna as a boy, later switched to clarinet, and by fourteen was already performing at rural weddings and fairs; he learned musical notation while doing his military service.

After moving to Istanbul in the 1980s, he made a living playing in tavern ensembles, restaurants and the theatrical productions of Ferhan Şensoy, and made studio recordings. Word of his playing eventually reached Canadian ethnomusicologist Brenna MacCrimmon, whom he met in 1997; their album Karşılama and a joint Canadian tour the following year introduced Balkan Romani music abroad, bringing concerts in London, New York, Boston and Chicago and a nickname from The Guardian, "the Coltrane of the clarinet." Renowned among Roma and non-Roma listeners for his improvisational flair, he became a leading interpreter of Thracian wedding tunes, and his playing reached wider audiences through Fatih Akın's films Head-On (2004) and Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul (2005).

Diagnosed with coronary heart disease in 2005, he was placed on a heart-transplant waiting list. He died in Istanbul on 9 May 2014 at 57 while undergoing treatment, leaving behind his wife and their three children, who are also musicians, and was buried, per his wishes, in his native Keşan. His recorded legacy includes Karşılama, Keşan'a Giden Yollar, Oğlan Bizim Kız Bizim, Romanes Clarinet, and Second Nature, made with the group Minor Empire.