Fazıl Say

Fazıl Say

Fazıl Say in July 2011
Background information
Born January 14, 1970 (1970-01-14) (age 42)
Ankara, Turkey
Genres Classical
Occupations Composer and Pianist
Instruments Piano

Fazıl Say (born January 14, 1970), is a Turkish pianist and composer born in Ankara, Turkey.

Contents

Biography

Born in 1970 in Ankara, Turkey, Fazıl Say started playing the piano at the age of four. He continued his music training in Ankara State Conservatory as a student of Special Status for Highly Talented Children and graduated from piano and composition in 1987. At the age of seventeen he was awarded a scholarship that enabled him to study for five years with David Levine at the Robert Schumann Institute in Düsseldorf. He earned his diploma in Germany in 1991 as Concerto Soloist and became a piano and chamber music teacher in 1992 in Berlin Performing Arts and Music Academy. Say won the Europe Young Concert Soloists Competition in 1994 and then the Young Concert Artists International Auditions held in New York in 1995.[1] Besides playing the piano, he has composed many oratorios, piano concertos, pieces of music for chamber, orchestra and piano and many other songs.[2]

Some of his compositions include Nazım and Requiem for Metin Altıok, four piano concertos, his orchestra piece Albert Einstein commissioned by Zurich Orchestra and his ballet named Patara which is commissioned by Wien Mozart Committee and was composed for Mozart's 250th birth year celebration.

He has performed with New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Tokyo Symphony.

He performed an open air concert as the closing of 2007 Florence Festival with Florence Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta and had an audience of more than twenty thousand listeners. Again in 2007, he was the head of the piano jury of Montreaux Jazz Festival. His CD which also includes Say's piano composition that was inspired by Turkish Folk singer and poet Asik Veysel's song named Black Earth was listed in 6th place on American Billboards.

In 2008, he was appointed as Culture Ambassador by the European Union and he aims to set up a new bridge between eastern and western cultures.

In 2009 Say was commissioned by Konzerthaus Dortmund and WDR to compose the Istanbul Symphony, for which the Turkey premiere was held in Istanbul on 25 December 2010, on the last day of a series of concerts on the Fazil Say Festival. The 3-day event was dedicated to the works of Say and included performances by Fazil Say, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, and other artists.

Honors and awards

Compositions

Orchestral works

Oratorios

Concertos

Chamber music

Songs

Piano solo

Music for dance

Music for theater

Music for cinema

Orchestrations

Early works

Experimental

Recordings

Other works

Books

Filmography

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/q63958/biography
  2. ^ http://www.avexnet.or.jp/classics/artist/fazil/index_e.html
  3. ^ Istanbul Symphony Recording on YouTube, (Video) 15-02-2011

External links