Musicians
Demet is an actor, singer, digital content producer and performance artist known for combining acting and exceptional vocal talents. She studied acting and musical theater, performed as lead singer in prestigious bands, such as İstanbul Gelişim, and held award-winning leading roles in well-known musical theater productions, such as Avenue Q, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, as well as performing in a wildly popular TV sitcom series Çocuklar Duymasın. Demet is working with United Thracians on her next musical storytelling project to celebrate diversity and culture through stories and songs from around the world. For more information on her work you can visit demettuncer.com
Mesut Ali was born and raised in İstanbul, Turkey. After dissecting a number of vintage instruments at early age, he was found fit for an instrument-less discipline and sent in singing for the school choir at grade school. He continued singing bass partitions for multiple choirs, including İTÜ Polyphonic, İÜ Polyphonic Choir as well as the Turkish Music Choir of the State Conservatory, as they studied under the direction of Prof. Serdar Öztürk. In the following years, Mesut Ali played the guitar and sang for various groups in Turkey and USA, and has been a proud member of United Thracians. He is also an avid sound engineer-wannabe, with experience in live sound reinforcement, system tuning and mixing.
Buğra was born to a musician immigrant family. He has roots in Balkans and Black Sea region. He grew up doodling with various instruments in his parents’ house until he finally picked up the bass at around the age of fourteen. He stopped messing with the other household instruments since.
Jan was born in Tabriz, Iran in 1984 and started his music studies at early age with the drums and the keyboard. He explored classical music of Azerbaijan and started to compose by the time he was 10-years-old. Jan has been a professional musician since he was 17-years old and played the daf, the keyboard, the piano and the tanbur in various bands. He has worked with master artist Cavit Murtezaoğlu and explored the philosophy of music and continued his career in spiritual and mystical music. Along with his work in musical compositions and arrangements, Jan has been teaching many students to play the daf at all levels. For more information on Jan and his work, please visit janporvas.com
Çağrı was born in 1974 in Germany to a family where nobody played any instruments at all, except a few talented whistlers. His first encounters with musical instruments include playing the snare drums as part of the grade school’s marching band and the electronic keyboard his father got him. However, Çağrı`s dominating interest in electronics turned the keyboard into a spare parts source for his ongoing hobby projects. More recently, he started playing the cajon and the darbuka for United Thracians and happy to make music with a group of talented and experienced musicians who have been kind enough to let him jam along.