Performance
His work includes BarokOpera Amsterdam, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, OSArt’s Rumi and the official pre-concert programme of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s 2025 Opening Night.
Read the biographyNey · Makam · Musical dialogue
Where breath becomes a voice.
I play the ney not only to preserve a tradition, but to ask what this ancient sound can mean here and now.
The artist
A distinct concert voice.
Şükrü Kirtiş is a Netherlands-based ney player working in Ottoman and Turkish classical music, chamber music, opera and contemporary concert productions.
New contexts
Through HarmonEast and developing solo work, the ney enters conversations with Western chamber music, opera, history and spoken performance.
Explore projectsPassing it on
Ney and Turkish Makam lessons for all levels, taught in English, Dutch or Turkish, with listening at the centre.
View lessonsThe instrument
One reed, shaped by breath
The ney can sound fragile, raw and direct. Every tone exposes the player: the air, the resistance, the smallest movement of the mouth.
The Turkish ney is an end-blown reed flute. Its seven holes offer no shortcuts: pitch, colour and expression emerge through breath and control.
“A good instrument matters. But the greater part of the sound still comes from the player.”A principle behind the practice
Current project
Echoes of the Court
A musical dialogue between Western European and Ottoman court traditions, performed by HarmonEast Ensemble: piano, ney, viola, cello and percussion.