German Ud Player, Roman Bunka: I Bought a Turkish Ud 28 Years Ago As a Souvenir [Archives:2000/46/Last Page]
Roman Bunka is a German Ud player that was first encountered with Ud in 1972 during a visit to Turkey. Its nice shape lured him to bring one back to Germany just as a souvenir. There it was kept untouched until he got more interested in Arab music after he chanced to listen to a musical masterpiece by Ryadh Al-Sombati, an Egyptian Composer, on the radio in 1978. Then he decided to encounter with Arab music and singers, particularly the most famous Arab singer, Um Kolthoum. At that time nobody in Europe knew about Ud. There was no education, no schools, no teachers for this instrument. It was also difficult to get it in records. So I had to go to an Arab country to find more about Arab music, in general and about Ud in particular. I had a chance to go to Cairo in 1984 to play jazz with a guest group there. At the same time I was very fascinated by Arab music and I wanted to know more about it. I bought another Ud. I learnt how to tune it and I knew the strings but still I played a lot of guitar and recorded with some famous singers in Egypt who were looking for Western people who understand the oriental music. It happened that I played and recorded with singers like Mohammed Moneer as guitar player. I kept on studying the Ud. It was not easy to find a teacher because some people do it just for money and others if you have good relations with them. But I found a very good teacher in 1990. He was actually a violinist. He also was one of the Ud school members. With him I found a strong cooperation although he did not speak English we always sat together to practice every evening. This is how Mr. Roman Bunka quenched his thirst of Arab music and Ud as narrated by him.
Mr. Roman Bunka is currently visiting Yemen at an invitation by the German Embassy in Yemen to take part in the activities organized by the Ministry of Culture. He said he was more interested in meeting with people familiar with Yemeni culture than visiting tourist places.
——
[archive-e:46-v:2000-y:2000-d:2000-11-13-p:./2000/iss46/lastpage.htm]
