Ozgur Aydin, Turkey, 3rd Prize, 2001

Born in 1972 in Colorado / USA to Turkish parents, Ozgur Aydin began his music studies at the Ankara Conservatory with Prof. Pekman. He subsequently studied with Peter Katin at the Royal College of Music in London and with Karl-Heinz Kammerling at the Hanover Music Academy. Further enrichment came from such artists as Andras Schiff, Gyorgy Kurtag, Leon Fleisher, Tatiana Nikolaeva, Dmitri Bashkirov and Anatol Ugorski, whom he worked with at festivals and master courses.

Winner of the renowned ARD International Music Competition 1997 in Munich, this young Turkish pianist Ozgur Aydin is one of the most promising pianists of his generation. In addition to The Cleveland International Piano Competition he has won top prizes at The Maria Callas Grand Prix in Athens, the Esther Honens Calgary International Piano Competition in Canada and in USA. He has been awarded The Nippon Music Award of Tokyo and The Wilhelm-Weichsler Music Prize of the Osnabruck City.

Ozgur Aydin made his major orchestral debut in September 1997 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a performance of the Brahms D minor concerto with Michael Schonwand conducting. He has since performed in many prestigious concert venues including Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), Herkulessaal and Gasteig (Munich), Musikhalle (Hamburg), Queen Elisabeth Hall (London), L’Auditori (Barcelona), Suntory Hall and Opera City Recital Hall (Tokyo), Recital Hall (Osaka), 92nd Street Y (New York), Severance Hall (Cleveland), Kennedy Center (Washington).

He has been invited to perform at international Music Festivals including the Salzburg Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and International Istanbul Music Festival. He has performed with numerous German Symphony Orchestras, with almost all Turkish Symphony Orchestras and with the BBC Concert Orchestra London.

He has recorded CDs for Videal (Berlin) in 1998, for Yapi Kredi (Istanbul) in 1999 and for Genuin Music Production (Detmold) in 2001.

Mr. Aydin’s website is: www.ozguraydin.com