GÜLSIN ONAY (Türkiye)
22 January @11.00-14.00 and 15.00-17.00 in the Great Hall
Gülsin Onay gave her first public recital on Turkish Radio when she was only six. She then studied with Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Mithat Fenmen, and subsequently at the Paris Conservatoire with Pierre Sancan, Monique Haas and Nadia Boulanger, from where she graduated at the age of 16, winning the prestigious “Premier Prix du Piano”. Gülsin Onay’s subsequent, truly international, career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan, performing as soloist with leading orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, and under such legenderay conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Neeme Jarvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jose Serebrier and Vassily Sinaisky.
Gülsin Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation as recognition of her Chopin playing. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of A.Adnan Saygun, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose 2nd Piano Concerto (which she has premiered in Turkey and abroad) was dedicated to her. Her 20 recorded albums illustrate the breadth of her repertoire as well as her interpretive power, ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Rachmaninov and Bartok. Her most recent issue is the world premiere recording of the Erkin concerto, along with the Khachaturian Concerto, with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra under Jose Serebrier.
Gülsin Onay holds the titles of State Artist in her native Turkey, and of soloist for the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara. She is “Artist in Residence” at Bilkent University in Ankara and holds an honorary doctorate degrees from Bosphorus University in Istanbul, and from Hacettepe University in Ankara. Since its inception in 2004, Gülsin Onay has been the artistic advisor of the Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival. She was named “Pianist of the Year” in the 2011 Donizetti Classical Music Awards, in 2014 was awarded the Honorary Medal of the 42nd Istanbul International Music Festival, and in 2018 the Honorary Medal from the Bodrum Music Festival. Starting in 2015, the Turkish city of Tekirdağ, one of whose streets has been named after Gülsin Onay, has organised a annual concert series “Gülsin Onay Piano Days” in her honour.
The masterclass takes place in collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Türkiye.