GFA Open Stage

Deren Eryılmaz

Deren Eryılmaz started her formal music education at Bilkent University, Music Preparatory School in Ankara, Turkey. She attended the Piano Department of the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts of Bilkent University, with a merit scholarship.

She continued her education at the Rotterdam Conservatory (CODARTS) as a student of Michael Davidson in 1999 and graduated and got her bachelor degree in 2003. She participated in several master classes in Turkey and abroad; studied with Pascal Devonyon, Gülsin Onay, Mehmet Okonsar, Aquiles Delle Vigne and Georgy Sandor. Eryılmaz performed at various festivals, gave solo and chamber music concerts, participated in multidisciplinary performances and performed with national and university orchestras as a soloist in The Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey and France.

Eryılmaz received her master’s degree at Baskent University State Conservatory in Ankara under the supervision of Mehmet Okonsar in 2007. She also worked as a research assistant during her studies at this university while she was responsible for organising the national and international concert tours of the Baskent University String Orchestra. Between 2005-2009, Eryılmaz was the Chair of the Selection and Organization Committee at The Center for Contemporary Arts, Ankara. Throughout four concert seasons, the Committee, under the supervision of Eryılmaz, organized over 100 chamber music concerts as well as electro-acoustic concert series, lunch concert series, world music and jazz series with renowned international performers. She was a member of the Academic Team of the Bilkent University, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, as a lecturer and instructor (2008-2011) at the Piano Department.

In addition to her academic duties and responsibilities, she was the coordinator of the Piano Department (2009-2011) and the Performance Organization Coordinator (2008-2010). She also supervised the Early Age Music Training Program (2009-2010) and Erasmus Departmental Exchange Program (2009-2011). Eryılmaz started working on the Taubman Approach with Edna Golandsky in 2011 in New York. Following her acceptance to the Teacher Training Program of the Golandsky Institute in 2013, she is certified as an Instructor of the Institute in 2014, Associate Level teacher in 2016 and Master Level teacher in 2021.

The students she has been teaching throughout her academic career have been successful in receiving acceptance to internationally distinguished schools with full scholarship grants, as well as in performing as soloists with various orchestras. Her students have also been receiving awards at international piano competitions. She moved her piano studio from Istanbul to London, where she currently lives and teaches the Taubman Approach. She has founded Deren Piano Academy and helps pianists all over the world to overcome their technical limitations. She also pursues her career with solo and chamber music concerts and continues her studies with Edna Golandsky in New York.

Elif Gökçe Türkili

Elif Gökçe (Tuğrul) Türkili was born in Edirne in 1989. She was very keen on music and started her initial music lessons at the age of five with Kıymet Özbay. The following year, she was sent to Prof. Vasıf Hasanov for professional piano lessons. In 2002, she decided to continue her

formal education at Trakya University State Conservatory.

In 2005, She moved to Istanbul to study further with Prof. Hülya Tarcan at the Istanbul State Conservatory, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University where she received her Bachelor’s Degree (2010), Master’s Degree (2012) and Proficiency in Arts Degree (2015).

She studied with Prof. Gerlinde Otto at Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT in Weimar for a year. As a member of Ludus Ensemble, supported by TEV (Turkish Education Foundation) Scholarship, she was accepted in the Chamber Music Master’s Program at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and studied with Prof. Niklas Schmidt between 2014-2016 and received her second Master’s Degree.

Throughout her education, she attended important international masterclasses and worked with eminent pianists such as ; İdil Biret in AIMA, Prof. Ferenc Rados and Prof. Paul Badura-Skoda in Weimar, Prof. Luiz de Moura Castro and Prof. Boris Berman in SIPO Portugal, Prof. Peter

Nagy in Budapest, Prof. Paul Schenly at the Pianofest in the Hamptons, New York; and as a chamber musician, she worked with Prof. Eberhard Feltz, Ralf Gothoni, Prof. Michel Lethiec, Itamar Golan, Prof. Niklas Schmidt at the International Mendelssohn Summer School-Festival in Hamburg.

In 2004, she played R. Schumann Piano Concerto with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dimitri Orlov. She played Beethoven Triple Concerto with Banu Selin Aşan and Seren Karabey (members of Ludus Ensemble) with MSGSU Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Antonio Pirolli at Süreyya Operası Istanbul, in 2015. She played Mendelssohn Double Concerto for Violin and Piano with Yılmaz Bişer (cello arrangement) with KODA Orchestra, conducted by Ender Sakpınar, in 2019.

Elif Gökçe Türkili has played solo recitals throughout Turkey and in many countries in Europe. She has performed in Liszt Haus in Weimar on Liszt’s very own Bechstein Piano and also in the Weimar Palace where she performed on historical instruments. As a chamber musician she has played in concert halls such as Laeiszhalle, Hamburg; Mozarteum Solitar Saal, Salzburg; Brucknerhaus, Linz; Barlachhaus, Hamburg; Kunsthalle Hamburg and in many venues throughout Istanbul.

In August 2018, Elif Gökçe Türkili was entitled as Associate Professor. She has been among the teaching faculty of Istanbul State Conservatory, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. The major subjects she enjoys teaching are; Piano, Chamber Music, Piano Literature and Contemporary Piano Repertoire at Middle School, High School, Undergraduate and Graduate Levels.

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.