Salih Korkut Peker

Born in 1979. He started music with the clarinet in 1993, soon he became interested in stringed instruments and turned to electric guitar, cümbüş(a mix of banjo and oud) and fretless guitar. His professional music career began in 1998. Until 2009, he performed with many bands as guitarist, fretless guitarist and bassist in many different styles (indie rock, pop rock, folk etc.). 

In 2009, he studied fretless guitar-Turkish music with Erkan Oğur; maqam and harmony with Emin İgüs and Murat Opus in “Nazım Hikmet Academy İstanbul”. 

Between the years 2009-2017, he played hundreds of gigs(Turkey, Germany, Belgium and Australia) with Istanbul Arabesque Project as guitarist, cümbüş player and back vocal. He also took place in group’s 4 albums and 1 single, as guitarist, bass guitarist, back vocal, songwriter, composer and arranger. 

Starting from 2017, the musician has new projects: “Kırşehir-İzmir-Seattle”(one man, between 3 regions), “Yasak Helva”(electric folk trio), “Duble Salih” (acoustic Anatolian folk duo) and “Çalgiya İzmir” (Acoustic Balkan trio). 

With his new projects, he performed in Carthage Jazz Festival (Tunisia), Sziget Festival (Hungary), BRDCST Festival (Belgium) and various music clubs in Netherlands and Germany, until now. 

In May 2019, Peker played bağlama (saz) in Ekin Eti’s, symphony about Aşık Veysel, called “İnsanlık Davası”, together with the Anadolu Nefesi Brass Band and İzmir State Symphony Orchestra. 

In November 2019, he took part in the Serenade musical in Berlin HAU Hebbel Theater as a musician and actor, which directed by Tamer Yiğit. 

Salih Korkut Peker, currently involved in the projects with his cümbüş, çağlama (saz with guitar strings), divane (a mix of saz and lute) and fretless guitar, which are new generation of designed instruments and continues to add his own taste to Anatolian music. 

Peker also composes music for commercials and is a recording musician forseries, films and commercials.