Gülsin Onay
Encyclopedia
Gülsin Onay is a leading Turkish
concert pianist
.
When she was 6 years old, Gülsin Onay gave her first concert on TRT Radio Istanbul. At the age of 10, she received a special government scholarship under the Üstün Yetenekli Çocuklar Kanunu (Law for Exceptionally Talented Children), which enabled her to study first in Ankara with Mithat Fenmen and Ahmed Adnan Saygun, and two years later at the Paris Conservatory, where her teachers were Pierre Sancan
, Monique Haas
, Pierre Fiquet and Nadia Boulanger
. At the age of 16 she graduated with the Premier Prix de Piano. She continued her studies with Bernhard Ebert at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
-Jacques Thibaud
Piano Competition (Paris) and the Ferruccio Busoni
International Piano Competition (Bolzano). Since then she has played in the musical centres of 65 countries in a career spanning all continents. She has played with orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle, English Chamber Orchestra
, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, under such conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy
, Erich Bergel
, Michael Boder, Andrey Boreyko, Jörg Faerber, Edward Gardner, Emmanuel Krivine, Ingo Metzmacher
, Jose Serebrier, Vassily Sinaisky, Stanislaw Wislocki and Lothar Zagrosek. Ms. Onay's many festival appearances include Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Mozartfest Würzburg, Newport, Schleswig-Holstein and Istanbul.
An exceptional Chopin interpreter, Gülsin Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of Ahmed 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. Other contemporary composers who have dedicated works to Gülsin Onay are Hubert Stuppner, Denis Dufour, Jean-Louis Petit, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu and Marc-André Hamelin. Gülsin Onay has also given world premieres of concertos by Stuppner and Tabakov.
As state artist
, Gülsin Onay is an official soloist of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra
in Ankara. She is Artist in Residence at Bilkent University
in Ankara.
Gülsin Onay is Artistic Advisor of the Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival
and Howard Griffiths
, to widespread critical acclaim. Most recently, the American label VAI has released a live DVD of her performances of the Grieg Concerto and the Saint-Saens 2nd Concerto, to be followed in early 2011 by the first of two live recital DVDs, featuring her critically acclaimed performances from the Miami International Piano Festival.
Many of Ms. Onay’s concerts have been broadcast on European radio and television, and in the USA on National Public Radio.
.
Gülsin Onay's son Erkin Onay is a professional violinist. He is currently a concertmaster of the orchestra of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet.
Gülsin Onay is married to Tony Scholl, Professor of Algebra and Number Theory at Cambridge University.
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
concert pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Education
Born into a musical family, Gülsin Onay began to play the piano at the age of three. Her first teacher was her mother.When she was 6 years old, Gülsin Onay gave her first concert on TRT Radio Istanbul. At the age of 10, she received a special government scholarship under the Üstün Yetenekli Çocuklar Kanunu (Law for Exceptionally Talented Children), which enabled her to study first in Ankara with Mithat Fenmen and Ahmed Adnan Saygun, and two years later at the Paris Conservatory, where her teachers were Pierre Sancan
Pierre Sancan
Pierre Sancan was a French composer, pianist, teacher and conductor. Along with Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux, he was a major figure among French musicians in the mid-twentieth-century transition between modern and contemporary eras; but outside France his name is almost unknown.Born in...
, Monique Haas
Monique Haas
Monique Haas was a French pianist.Born in Paris, she studied at the Conservatoire there with Joseph Morpain and Lazare Lévy, taking a Premier Prix in 1927. She went on to study with Rudolf Serkin and Robert Casadesus. She was married to the French-Romanian composer Marcel Mihalovici...
, Pierre Fiquet and Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. At the age of 16 she graduated with the Premier Prix de Piano. She continued her studies with Bernhard Ebert at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
Career
At the outset of her career Gülsin Onay took prizes in leading competitions, including the Marguerite LongMarguerite Long
Marguerite Long was a French pianist and teacher.Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long was born in Nîmes. She studied with Henri Fissot at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1891, and privately with Antoine François Marmontel...
-Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud
Jacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...
Piano Competition (Paris) and the Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni
Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...
International Piano Competition (Bolzano). Since then she has played in the musical centres of 65 countries in a career spanning all continents. She has played with orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle, English Chamber Orchestra
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, under such conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy is a Russian-Icelandic conductor and pianist. Since 1972 he has been a citizen of Iceland, his wife Þórunn's country of birth. Since 1978, because of his many obligations in Europe, he and his family have resided in Meggen, near Lucerne in Switzerland...
, Erich Bergel
Erich Bergel
Erich Bergel was a conductor from Transylvania .-Professional career:Bergel was a flutist of the Hermannstädter Philharmoniker age 18. From 1950 to 1955 he studied conducting, organ and composition at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy of Cluj-Napoca...
, Michael Boder, Andrey Boreyko, Jörg Faerber, Edward Gardner, Emmanuel Krivine, Ingo Metzmacher
Ingo Metzmacher
Ingo Metzmacher is a German conductor. He is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher. His musical education in piano, music theory and conducting was in Hanover, Salzburg and Cologne...
, Jose Serebrier, Vassily Sinaisky, Stanislaw Wislocki and Lothar Zagrosek. Ms. Onay's many festival appearances include Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Mozartfest Würzburg, Newport, Schleswig-Holstein and Istanbul.
An exceptional Chopin interpreter, Gülsin Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of Ahmed 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. Other contemporary composers who have dedicated works to Gülsin Onay are Hubert Stuppner, Denis Dufour, Jean-Louis Petit, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu and Marc-André Hamelin. Gülsin Onay has also given world premieres of concertos by Stuppner and Tabakov.
As state artist
State Artist
State Artist is a honorary title issued to artists by the government of Turkey for their contributions into the Turkish culture. It was established in 1971 by President of Turkey and the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism....
, Gülsin Onay is an official soloist of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra
Presidential Symphony Orchestra
Presidential Symphony Orchestra is the presidential symphony orchestra of the Republic of Turkey. It is headquartered in Ankara...
in Ankara. She is Artist in Residence at Bilkent University
Bilkent University
İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, commonly referred to as Bilkent University or Bilkent, is the first private, nonprofit university in Turkey with the fundamental aim of creating a center of excellence in higher education and research...
in Ankara.
Gülsin Onay is Artistic Advisor of the Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival
Gümüslük International Classical Music Festival
The Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival and Eklisia summer school is held in the small fishing village of Gümüşlük on the south west coast of Turkey. It began in 2004 as a series of concerts and has grown to be a meeting place for internationally renowned musicians and up-and-coming...
Recordings
“An exceptional pianist, endowed with virtuosic brilliance and boundless energy, and an interpretive power both intelligent and emotionally sensitive”, Gülsin Onay has recorded 20 albums that illustrate the breadth of her repertoire as well as her interpretive power. 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 with the Bilkent Symphony OrchestraBilkent Symphony Orchestra
The Bilkent Symphony Orchestra is a major symphony orchestra of Turkey located in Bilkent, Ankara. It was founded in 1993 by Bilkent University. Since 1994 the orchestra is based in Bilkent Concert Hall...
and Howard Griffiths
Howard Griffiths (conductor)
Howard Griffiths is a British conductor. He studied music at the Royal College of Music, London.He has lived in Switzerland since 1981. From 1996 to 2006, he was chief conductor and artistic director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra . Griffiths is a champion of music by contemporary Turkish and...
, to widespread critical acclaim. Most recently, the American label VAI has released a live DVD of her performances of the Grieg Concerto and the Saint-Saens 2nd Concerto, to be followed in early 2011 by the first of two live recital DVDs, featuring her critically acclaimed performances from the Miami International Piano Festival.
Many of Ms. Onay’s concerts have been broadcast on European radio and television, and in the USA on National Public Radio.
Honours
- Honorary doctorate degrees from Bosphorus University in Istanbul, and from Hacettepe UniversityHacettepe UniversityHacettepe University is a major state university in Ankara, Turkey.The University has two main campuses. The first is located in the old town of Ankara and hosts the Medical Centre, and the second is the Beytepe Campus, which is 13 km from the city centre...
in Ankara.
- State ArtistState ArtistState Artist is a honorary title issued to artists by the government of Turkey for their contributions into the Turkish culture. It was established in 1971 by President of Turkey and the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism....
of the Republic of Turkey (1987).
- Appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the Turkish national committee of UNICEF in 2003.http://www.unicefturk.org/index.php?p=unicefnedir&sub=turkiyiniyetelcileri
- Gold Cross of Merit of the Polish nation (2007), awarded by the Polish President Lech KaczyńskiLech KaczynskiLech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
for her contributions to Polish culture through her outstanding performances of the music of Chopin.
- 2007 Honorary Award Medal of the Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation.
Other
Gülsin Onay's mother is the daughter of the famous Turkish mathematician and scientist Kerim ErimKerim Erim
Kerim Erim was a Turkish mathematician and physicist.He graduated from the Advanced Vocational School for Engineering in Istanbul in 1914 and received a PhD in Germany...
.
Gülsin Onay's son Erkin Onay is a professional violinist. He is currently a concertmaster of the orchestra of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet.
Gülsin Onay is married to Tony Scholl, Professor of Algebra and Number Theory at Cambridge University.