Biography

Hasan Tosun was born in Ulaşlı, a town in the Gölcük district of Kocaeli, Turkey. He began his musical journey with the oud while studying Mechanical Engineering at Bilecik Vocational School. His foundational knowledge of Turkish classical music theory was formed under the guidance of Tanburi Mehmet Kocaman.

From the age of 19, he continued his oud studies privately with Prof. Dr. Mutlu Torun. Upon Torun's recommendation, he worked with Dr. Nail Yavuzoğlu, who has authored methodological studies on jazz harmony, thereby deepening his understanding of harmony and compositional structures.

Tosun was admitted to the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory, Department of Basic Sciences, where his academic advisor was Dr. Nail Yavuzoğlu. During his studies, he worked extensively on oud performance with Mehmet Emin Bitmez and Osman Nuri Özpekel, and also studied with Prof. Dr. Selahattin İçli, Prof. Dr. Necdet Varol, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Atlığ, Prof. Dr. Serdar Öztürk, and Rahmi Sönmezocak.

On April 10, 2003, he performed as the principal instrumentalist at the Florence Nightingale Doctors' Concert held at the Milli Reasürans Teşvikiye Concert Hall, in a program attended by the composers of the performed works. These included Prof. Dr. Alaeddin Yavaşça, Prof. Dr. Selahattin İçli, Avni Anıl, Amir Ateş, Erol Sayan, Gündoğdu Duran, and Turhan Taşan.

During this period, he memorized and performed the complete works of Şerif Muhiddin Targan and Reşat Aysu, incorporating them fully into his repertoire. He graduated from the Istanbul Technical University State Conservatory with a thesis entitled "An Analysis of Coşkun Sabah's Oud Performance." He passed his final Turkish classical music repertoire examination before a jury that included Prof. Dr. Nevzat Atlığ, who also personally wrote a special evaluation letter for his thesis.

While completing his Master's degree at Haliç University, Tosun took flamenco lessons from Mehmet Ulvi Afşar upon the recommendation of Prof. Dr. Mutlu Torun, and continued advanced oud performance studies with Prof. Dr. Mutlu Torun. During the same period, he delivered preliminary thesis presentations on Refik Fersan and Paco de Lucía.

For five years, he performed with the Native Project ensemble, presenting fully improvisation-based music in Istanbul's Taksim district and various other cities. Between 2010 and 2015, he collaborated with rock artist Nev, performing nationwide concerts as part of the Bir Nev-i Alaturka project. In these performances, he interpreted selected works by Paco de Lucía and Haydar Tatlıyay, and presented improvisational taksim performances both on television programs and at concerts in Germany and Belgium.

Hasan Tosun continues his artistic research on performing oud within flamenco guitar forms, while also working on transpositions of classical guitar repertoire for the oud, pursuing a distinctive synthesis of traditional and contemporary performance practices.