Biography

Born in 1987, Eléonore Fourniau spent part of her adolescence in Uzbekistan. Trained on the classical piano, she discovered the hurdy-gurdy at the age of 20. After studying Russian and history at the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon, she moved to Istanbul in 2010 where she stayed for six years.
Inspired by the cultural diversity of Turkey, she has devoted herself to the study of Turkish folk musics, vocals and saz at the Istanbul State Conservatory, at the saz school in Erdal Erzincan, with different masters and during the course of many voyages across the country.

Recognized internationally for the quality of her interpretation of Kurdish music, she has performed, accompanied by her saz and her hurdy-gurdy, in Europe (France, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, Spain, Finland) and around the world (India, Morocco, Canada, Australia, Kyrgyzstan). Since 2014, she has organized numerous workshops about these musical repertoires.
The founding member of several ensembles (Oksit, Esman, women’s groups Telli Turnalar and Samaïa, trio Sylvain Barou, Efrén Lopez) she has also collaborated with different artists such as Mercan Erzincan, Mikail Aslan, Birol Topaloğlu, Keyvan Chemirani, Kamaan ensemble, Ersoj Kasimov, Istan trio, etc.