Gülsin Onay / Erkin Onay / Denis Shapovalov / Korkmaz Can Sağlam

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Gülsin Onay

Gülsin Onay began playing the piano at the age of three, and gave her first public recital on Turkish Radio when she was six. With the aid of a special state scholarship she studied with Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Mithat Fenmen, and then in Paris, where her teachers includes Pierre Sancan, Monique Haas and Nadia Boulanger.. She graduated from the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 16, winning the prestigious “Premier Prix du Piano”, and prizes in top international competitions, including the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud (in Paris) and the Ferruccio Busoni (in Bolzano), quickly followed. Gülsin Onay’s subsequent, truly international career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. She has given concerts in the major musical centres of the world such as Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Washington DC National Gallery of Art and the New York Miller Theater. She has performed as a soloist with such leading orchestras as Dresden Staatskapelle, Philharmonia Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras. Conductors with which she has performed include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Erich Bergel, Michael Boder, Andrey Boreyko, Jorg Faerber, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Edward Gardner, Neeme Jarvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Ingo Metzmacher, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jose Serebrier, Vassily Sinaisky, Stanislaw Wislocki and Lothar Zagrosek. Gülsin Onay’s many festival appearances include Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Mozartfest Würzburg, Newport, Schleswig-Holstein, Singapore, Ohrid, Azores and Istanbul. Chamber music artists she has played with include Antonio Meneses, Kirill Troussov, Maxim Vengerov, and the Endellion Quartet.

Gülsin Onay is acknowledged worldwide as the definitive interpreter of the music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun, the leading Turkish composer of the 20th century, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose 2nd Piano Concerto (which she premiered in Turkey and abroad) was dedicated to her. Other contemporary composers who have dedicated works to Gülsin Onay are Hubert Stuppner, Denis Dufour, Jean-Louis Petit, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu-Demiriz, Marc-André Hamelin and Bujor Hoinic.

Gülsin Onay’s over 20 recorded albums to date illustrate the breadth of her repertoire as well as her interpretive power, with solo works and concertos from Haydn and Mozart to the contemporary era. Her 2007 CD featuring live concert recordings of Tchaikovsky’s 1st and Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto has been acclaimed by critics and virtuosi alike. In 2008 CPO released her recording of both Saygun concertos, to widespread critical acclaim. For the 250 anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, Gülsin Onay has recorded 2 CDs of the composer’s works. Her latest release, of the piano concertos by Ulvi Cemal Erkin and Khachaturian, received wide critical praise. Many of her concerts have been broadcast on European radio and television, and in the USA on National Public Radio. During the 2020–2021 coronavirus pandemic, Gülsin Onay was a regular performer on social media, where her livestreamed concerts received several million views.

Gülsin Onay holds the title of State Artist in her native Turkey, where for many years she has been official soloist for the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara. She is “Artist in Residence” at Bilkent University in Ankara and holds honorary doctoral degrees from Bosphorus University in Istanbul, and from Hacettepe University in Ankara. In 2007 she was honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation for her interpretation of the music of Chopin. The same year, the “Sevda-Cenap And” Music Foundation awarded her its prestigious 2007 Honorary Award Gold Medal. Gülsin Onay was named “Pianist of the Year” in the 2011 Donizetti Classical Music Awards. In 2014 she was awarded the Honorary Medal of the 42nd Istanbul Music Festival, and later Honorary Medal from the Bodrum Music Festival in 2018. 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.

Outside of her professional performing career, Gülsin Onay has been a tireless promoter of classical music, through her charitable activities, event organisation, teaching and broadcasting. Since 2003 she has been a “Goodwill Ambassador” for UNICEF, and regularly gives charity concerts to support and publicise their activities. She has been the Artistic Advisor of the International Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival and Academy since its foundation in 2004. Gülsin Onay takes a particularly interest in nurturing the development of young musicians, and has taught over 400 pupils. Gülsin Onay is a regular contributor to radio and television arts programmes, and since 2017 she has hosted her own weekly programme “In the Studio with Gülsin Onay” on Turkish national radio.

Erkin Onay

Erkin Onay, born in Istanbul in 1976, initiated his violin education under his grandfather Joachim Reusch. Between 1989 and 1994, he privately studied with Prof. Atilla Aydın at the ‘Hannover für Musik.’ While continuing his general violin education in Hannover, Germany, he performed recitals in Turkey, Germany, Greece, and France and participated in Young Musicians Festivals during the same period.

In 1990, he received the second prize at the Young Musicians Competition in Germany. In 1994, he was accepted into the Freiburg University in Germany through a special talent examination with Prof. Jörg Hoffman.

He gained admission to Gyorgy Pauk’s class at the Winterthur Music Conservatory in Switzerland in 1996. Starting from 1998 at the Winterthur Music Conservatory, Erkin Onay worked with Prof. Rudolf Koelman, one of Heifetz’s last star students, and graduated in 2001 with the “konzertreife” Diploma (Concert Diploma) with the highest honors.

Erkin Onay collaborated with State Artist Prof. Suna Kan in Turkey and received his Artistic Proficiency degree in 2005. He has participated as a soloist in various orchestras conducted by Gürer Aykal, Rengim Gökmen, İbrahim Yazıcı, Antonio Pirolli, Naci Özgüç, Vladimir Altschuler, and Emil Tabakov, including the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya, Çukurova, Bursa State Symphony Orchestras, Eskişehir Symphony Orchestra, DESSO, and BASSO.

Having held numerous performances domestically and internationally, Erkin Onay has given recitals and chamber music concerts in Turkey, Ukraine, India, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

From 1999 to 2004, he served as the concertmaster of the Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, and from 2005 to 2007, he held the position of concertmaster at the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. Since 2007, he has been serving as the concertmaster of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet Orchestra.

Denis Shapovalov

Denis Shapovalov is a Russian cellist, conductor, and composer with an internationally established career spanning classical performance, contemporary music, and crossover projects. Winner of the Gold Medal at the XI International Tchaikovsky Competition, he has since performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras and collaborated with some of the most distinguished conductors of his generation. Mstislav Rostropovich described him as “a brilliant talent” and invited him to perform across Russia, Europe, and the United States.

As a soloist, he has appeared with major orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, and Belarus National Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Gianandrea Noseda, Yutaka Sado, Andrew Litton, Christian Badea, Vladimir Fedoseyev, and Alexander Vedernikov, and collaborated in chamber music with artists including Rodion Shchedrin, Lera Auerbach, Vadim Repin, Nikolaj Znaider, Sergey Babayan, and Andres Mustonen.

Shapovalov has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Centre in London, Tonhalle Zürich, Munich Philharmonie, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Beijing Concert Hall, Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Megaron in Athens, and the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. He is also noted for being the first classical musician to give a solo concert at the North Pole.

Alongside his performing career, he has developed an active conducting profile, working with orchestras such as the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra “Novaya Rossiya,” Belarus National Symphony Orchestra, Kazakhstan National Philharmonic Orchestra, Montenegro Symphony Orchestra, and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. He has led numerous projects across Europe, Asia, and South America and has been invited to conduct major contemporary music premieres, including performances at Zaryadye Concert Hall.

Since 2016, Shapovalov has also been active as a composer. His works include concertos, orchestral pieces, vocal cycles, and crossover compositions such as Concerto di Bravura, Italian Suite, Rock-variations on a Rococo theme by Tchaikovsky, Fantasia-Concerto “Rencontres Musicales”, Symphony in Rock Style, and Tchaikovsky–Dvořák: A Letter to a Dearest Friend. His crossover project Rock vs Rococo has gained wide recognition for bridging classical and contemporary genres.

A graduate of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied with Prof. Natalia Shakhovskaya, Shapovalov later served as Professor of Cello there for 12 years. He founded the Cello Travel International Academy in 2014 and is currently Professor at the Perosi Academy of Music in Italy.

Korkmaz Can Sağlam

Pianist Korkmaz Can Sağlam first gained international recognition as the Grand Prize winner of the 2021–2022 Vendome Prize for Piano, where he also received the CD Recording Prize and the Audience Prize. Since then, he has performed in major concert halls across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia, and released his debut studio album, Solace, on the Sono Luminus label in 2024. He has been praised for the “maturity of his interpretations and the seeming effortlessness with which they’re realized” (Textura).

Can Sağlam has appeared in venues including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Wiener Saal in Salzburg, and Melbourne Recital Centre. His recent achievements include First Prize at the 5th Samson François International Piano Competition and the 8th Weatherford College International Piano Competition, in addition to prizes at the Sydney and Hamamatsu International Piano Competitions. From 2018 to 2022, he was supported by Young Musicians on World Stages (YMWS), the artistic development programme founded by Güher and Süher Pekinel.

As a soloist, he has performed with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New Manhattan Sinfonietta, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, and Muğla Municipality Symphony Orchestra. An active chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists including Stephen Tavani, Aaron Boyd, Christopher Adkins, Andrew Haveron, and Keiko Urushihara. His festival appearances include the Sydney Festival, Bellapais Music Festival, and Mannes Summer Piano Festival, and he has also collaborated with the acclaimed Italian contemporary dance company Aterballetto.

Born in Ankara, Turkey, Can Sağlam began his musical education at the age of seven with Gamze Kırtıl at Bilkent University’s Music and Ballet Primary School. He studied with Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music before earning his Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where he was awarded the Ahmet Ertegün Memorial Scholarship and twice received the Susan W. Rose Piano Fellowship. He subsequently completed a Master of Music degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music and an Artist Diploma at the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University under the guidance of Sergei Babayan.

Now based in Berlin, Can Sağlam continues his artistic studies with Kirill Gerstein at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler.

CONCERT PROGRAM

Korkmaz Can Sağlam

Enrique Granados – “El Amor y la Muerte” from Goyescas, Op.11

Alexander Scriabin – Piano Sonata No.3 in F-Sharp minor, Op.23
3.Andante
4.Finale – Presto con fuoco

Interval

Gülsin Onay , Erkin Onay , Denis Shapovalov

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50