Mazlum Çimen


Mazlum Çimen is a Turkish musician, ballet dancer, film actor, folk singer, and award-winning film score composer.

Early life

He was born in Sevdilli village of Elbistan in Kahramanmaraş Province on June 18, 1958. He is the son of Nesimi Çimen who is a great Ashik, songwriter and Cura Virtuoso in history. His parents originate however from Hozat in Tunceli Province.
His family moved to Istanbul as he was still in pre-school age. After Mazlum finished his primary school education, he attended Istanbul State Conservatory to study violin. Four years later, he switched over to ballet dancing section of the same music school and graduated in 1981. He entered Istanbul State Opera and Ballet as a ballet dancer, where he is still employed.

Music career

Mazlum toured across the country with his father Nesimi Çimen, a well-known folk music singer, and was so introduced in music composing. He created his first compositions already in 1980. With his music teacher İhsan Yüce's initiation, he stepped into the film music field, where he found the strong support of Onat Kutlar, a poet and co-founder of the Istanbul International Film Festival.
His first commercial compositions were for the film Mem û Zin in 1991 and for the TV mini-series Aysarı'nın Zilleri in 1992. He was awarded three times the Golden Orange and twice the Golden Boll for best film score. In 2008, he received the Best Film Score Award for Nokta at the Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival in France.
Beside composing film and TV mini-series score in addition to his primary profession as ballet dancer, Mazlum Çimen plays in movies, sings and records folk music.

Filmography

Film score