Özgür Aydin

Noted for his "elegance and strength" by the Salzburger Nachrichten, Turkish pianist Ozgur Aydin made his major orchestral debut in 1997 in a performance of the Brahms D minor Piano Concerto with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the same year, he won the renowned ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Nippon Music Award in Tokyo, thus achieving standing as a welcome guest in concert halls throughout the world.

Since then, Mr. Aydin has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras in Germany and Turkey, as well as with the BBC Concert Orchestra London, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and Canada's Calgary Philharmonic. Frequently invited to summer music festivals, he has appeared at the Salzburg, İstanbul, Schleswig-Holstein, and Rheingau Music Festivals, at the Ravinia Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival.

In addition, Mr. Aydin regularly performs chamber music concerts and recitals, in such prestigious concert venues as the Auditorium du Louvre, Herkulessaal and Gasteig in Munich, Hamburg's Musikhalle, Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, L'Auditori in Barcelona, Tokyo's Suntory Hall and Opera City Recital Hall, the 92nd Street Y in New York, Cleveland's Severance Hall, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is a founding member of the Aurata Quintet, and enjoys recurrent collaborations with violinist Midori, violist Naoko Shimizu, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Mr. Aydin has made solo piano recordings of music by Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann for the European labels Videal and Yapi Kredi, as well as a live recording produced by the Cleveland International Piano Competition. Two CDs of viola/piano duets with Naoko Shimizu have been released by Genuin Music Production in Leipzig, and a live recording by Meister Music in Japan.

Born in Colorado to Turkish parents, Ozgur Aydin began his music studies at the Ankara Conservatory in Turkey. He subsequently studied with Peter Katin at the Royal College of Music in London and with Karl-Heinz Kammerling at the Hanover Music Academy. He has also received valuable instruction from artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, György Kurtág, Tatiana Nikolaeva, Andras Schiff and Anatol Ugorski at master classes and festivals.

Ozgur Aydin lives in Berlin.

Education

  • 1984-1991 State Conservatory in Ankara-Turkey with Prof. Pekman
  • 1991-1993 Royal College of Music in London with Peter Katin
  • 1993-1999 State Academy of Music in Hannover with Prof. Kammerling
  • Master courses with Andras Schiff, Ferenc Rados, Tatiana Nikolaeva, Anatol Ugorski, Dmitri Bashkirov, and Leon Fleisher

Awards & Prizes

  • 1988 Prize winner, National Piano Competition, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 1993 1. Prize, Chopin Competition at the Royal College of Music, London
  • 1.Prize, Concerto Competition at the Royal College of Music, London
  • 1994 "Förderpreis", International Summer Academy Mozarteum, Salzburg
  • 1995 Mozart Prize, International Bremen Piano Competition
  • 1995 Special Prize, Best Performance of Chopin Etudes, International Chopin Competition, Gottingen
  • 1997 Winner of the International Music Competition of the ARD, Munich
  • with two additional prizes:
  • Wilhelm-Wechsler Prize
  • Nippon Music Award
  • 2000 Prize winner, Esther Honens Calgary International Piano Competition, Canada
  • 2001 Third Prize winner, The Cleveland International Piano Competition, USA
  • and "Mozart Prize" for the best performance of a Mozart composition
  • 2002 Second Prize Winner in Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens

Scholarships

  • 1991-1993 British Council
  • 1993-1996 DAAD (German Government)
  • 1996-1999 Oscar und Vera Ritter Stiftung

Concerts

Salzburg Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, Chopin Festival Duszniki/Poland, Ankara Music Festival, Istanbul Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Edinburgh International Festival

Suntory Hall and Opera City Resital Hall in Tokyo, Recital Hall in Osaka,
92nd Street Y in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, Severance Hall in Cleveland,
Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, L'Auditori in Barcelona, Athens Symphony Hall,
NDR Hall in Hannover, Musikhalle Hamburg, Herkulessaal and Gasteig in Munich, Konzerthaus Berlin

Concerts tours in
Austria, Australia, Belgium, England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, USA, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey

As soloist with
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra, Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra, Hof Symphony Orchestra, Thüringen Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra London, Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Akbank Chamber Orchestra, Borusan Symphony Orchestra, Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Adana State Symphony Orchestras, Iasio Philharmonic Orchestra, Patras Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Sinfonietta Zilina, Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra

Chamber Music

Collaborations with

  • Violinist Midori
  • Violist Naoko Shimizu
  • Members of the Berlin Philharmonic

CDs

  • Solo piano works by Mozart, Schumann, Liszt (Videal, Berlin, 1998)
  • Romantic Selection, solo piano works by Chopin & Rachmaninov (Yapi Kredi, Istanbul, 1999)
  • Duo works for viola and piano by Schubert, Brahms, Hindemith / with Naoko Shimizu, viola (Genuin, Leipzig, 2001 and 2010)
  • Solo piano works by Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Bartok, Boulez (Live Recordings at the Cleveland International Piano Competition 2001)
  • Works for viola and piano by Schumann, Britten and Bunch (Genuin, Leipzig, 2004)
  • Live recording, sonatas for viola and piano by Bach, Brahms, Hindemith and Clarke (Meister Music Japan 2011)