Orhan Gencebay was born on August 4, 1944, in the coastal town of Samsun, Turkey. He is of Crimean Tatar descent and began learning music at the age of six, taking violin and mandolin lessons from Emin Tarakçi, a classical musician from the Ukraine Conservatoire.
At seven, he started playing the baglama, a traditional Turkish instrument, and continued taking traditional Turkish folk music lessons. By the age of ten, he had created his first composition, and at thirteen, he began playing the tambur, an instrument often used in Turkish classical music.
During his high school years, Orhan performed in classical and traditional Turkish folk music groups, playing the tambur and baglama, and taught music lessons in his own courses. He also took part in organizing community music centers in Istanbul and Samsun.
At sixteen, Orhan became interested in jazz and rock music, and started playing the tenor saxophone in wind orchestras. He enrolled in the Turkish conservatory in Istanbul, where he studied for four years. During his military service, he played saxophone in the military brass band.
Orhan passed the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) auditions at ages 20 and 22 and became a resident baglama player at the network for several months. In 1966, he won an excellent grade in the National Baglama Contest with Arif Sag and Cinucen Tanrikorur, two other contemporary masters of Turkish music.
In the late sixties, Orhan collaborated with a wide range of musicians in performances and film music. He played baglama with Arif Sag in many records with singers such as Muzaffer Akgün, Yildiz Tezcan, Gülden Karaböcek, Ahmet Sezgin, Sükran Ay, Sabahat Akkiraz, and Nuri Sesigüzel.
Orhan also took part as a music director in many Turkish films such as Ana, Kuyu, Kizilirmak-Karakoyun. He collaborated with many musicians from different genres, such as Erkin Koray, Omar Faruk Tekbilek, Ismet Siral, Burhan Tonguc, Ozer Senay, Vedat Yildirimbora, Neset Ertas, Abdullah Nail Baysu.
Orhan appeared as a baglama performer and a well-known composer in musical societies, besides releasing several singles in the genre of traditional Turkish folk music. In 1968, he released his first "free-style" single "Sensiz Bahar Gecmiyor/Basa Gelen Cekilirmis", and was rewarded.
During the 1970s, Orhan released many singles in a new genre that is a fusion of traditional Turkish folk music, Turkish classical music, Western classical music, jazz, rock, country, progressive, psychedelic, Indian, Arabic, Spanish, and Greek music styles.
Orhan founded the Kervan Record Company in 1972, which became very successful, attracting many other talented musicians. Throughout his career, Orhan has performed leading roles in 36 movies, has been a composer almost in 90 movies, composed of about a thousand works, released almost 35 singles, 15 albums, and dozens of MCs. His albums sold out over 65 million legal copies.
