On April 15, 2006 at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, Ahmet Ozhan, famed Turkish Sufi musician, gave a concert to a packed house. Amongst the audience were many Turkish people. But the audience was not exclusively Turkish. About half of the audience was in fact American, Americans of diverse backgrounds who had either come to the concert with their interest piqued by Turkish or Sufi music, or as guests invited by their Turkish neighbors. Preceding the concert, around the Lincoln Center fountain, one could hear the Anatolian rhythms of Turkish mingling with English in a pleasant assortment of accents.

   Ahmet Ozhan has been giving concerts throughout the Middle East Europe and America. From a young age, he has been trained in Turkish, Middle Eastern, and Western music. Today, he performs with an ensemble of traditional Sufi musicians playing an assortment of instruments that includes the ney, ud, and kanun, amongst others. Along with his musical ensemble he was joined by twelve whirling dervishes, the followers of Rumi.

   The Mevlevi Order, which was founded by the followers of Rumi, preserved and propagated its teachings of mystic love and union. The Order and its ideas flourished under the Ottoman Empire and have continued to enrich the lives of hundreds of thousands –of millions– to this very day.  That night's performance can trace its genealogy back to a single man, chanting passionate rhymes: a man who knew only to love.

            click for more pictures of the concert..