Emrah Kotan was born in Erzurum, Turkey on July 31, 1977. Shortly after his birth, Emrah's family relocated to the western coastal city of Izmir. From the age of 4, Emrah showed a keen interest in music and started playing the mandolin. When he was eleven, he was accepted to study at Ankara State Conservatory and was encouraged to play percussion by his instructors. Emrah studied under Philippe Garcia and was inspired by Mr. Garcia's skills in percussion and drum set. At 13, Emrah started studying under the principal timpanist of the Turkish Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Hasim Yedican. Emrah was formally trained in classical percussion, playing instruments like xylophone, tympani and vibraphone.
While
he was performing with the school symphony orchestras, Emrah started listening
to jazz and began to play along with the few jazz recordings he had.
With time, Emrah's musical tastes flourished. He started listening to a variety of music, from Chick Corea to Jimi Hendrix. He started playing in local clubs in Ankara with his first Soul/R&B band. Emrah's career started taking off with TV appearances and drum set competitions. He also played with some of Turkey's well-known singers.
After graduating from Ankara State with a Bachelor's Degree in Percussion Performance, he came to the United States for the first time. In Atlanta, Emrah saw the Georgia Tech Jazz Band perform while he was studying English there. The band instructor, Ron Mendola, invited him to play with the band, and within a year, Emrah was accepted into Georgia State University's Percussion Performance program under the instruction of Jack Bell. Shortly after being accepted, Emrah switched over to the Jazz Studies program and started playing with some Atlanta-based bands.
In
2000, he was invited to play with the world-renowned Turkish pianist,
Fazil Say and the Kudsi Erguner Jazz Quartet. They performed at the Montreux,
Saint-Denis, Montpellier and Antip Jazz Festivals, and Emrah also had
the opportunity to go back home to perform in the Istanbul and Izmir Jazz
Festivals.
When he returned to the U.S., he continued his studies at Georgia State. At Georgia State, Emrah played with jazz greats, Joe Lovano, Kenny Garrett and Tim Hagens. Emrah also studied with Sonny Emory, a great drummer and fellow GSU alumni. Later on in 2000, Emrah went on to perform at Guitar Center's Drum Off, and placed first in Georgia and 2nd in the regional finals.
Since then, Emrah has performed with various bands throughout Atlanta, and has played at Music Midtown, the Chicago African Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Montreaux Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Atlantis Music Conference. He has been invited back to Georgia State University as a guest lecturer. Aside from performing regularly, Emrah teaches drum set and percussion at Ken Stanton Music and applied percussion at Agnes Scott College.