User:Sonerersen

Soner Ersen was born in 1972 as a child of a musical family in Cyprus. He started his career as a pianist by playing in Cyprus. He went to Istanbul, Turkey in 1994 and started to play with Turkey’s well-known musicians both at live concerts and in the studio. In 1997, he formed a duo with Cypriot viola player Ersen Sururi and participated to the International Famagusta Culture Art and Tourism Festival, where they performed their arrangements of Cypriot folk songs and their own jazz compositions. This concert was repeated in Bodrum, Turkey as well.

In 1998, he played with American rock guitarist Michael Angelo & Awesome John in the International Music Fair in Istanbul. During this time he was in Turkey, he also played with Turkey’s major jazz musicians such as Elvan Araci, Oguz Durukan, Fatih Erkoc etc.

He went back to Cyprus in 2003 and opened a jazz bar, aiming to introduce and promote jazz music in his country. In this period, he performed his own compositions and arrangements with musicians from Cyprus, Turkey, England and U.S.A. He also played in various concerts organised by British Council and French Cultural Centre in Cyprus. One of the songs he composed (named "For You") is performed by Cypriot fusion guitarist Okan Ersan, in his album "To Whom It May Concern".

Soner Ersen is one of the leading jazz musicians of Cyprus. He is currently studying jazz at Middlesex University in London  and participating in different projects as pianist, keyboardist, composer and arranger.He has toured With Billy Cobham as a Supporting Band in october 2005. He has played jazz with Tenor Saxophonist Brian Iddenden, Drummer Gene Calderazzo ,Brian Abrahams and double-bassist Ben Hazleton, Lance Rose, Jozef Secnik. He is arranging his compositions for his band to be recorded as an album.