Gülsin Onay (born 12 September 1954) is a Turkish classical pianist. She lives in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, England.

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 Ahmet Adnan Saygun (; 7 September 1907 – 6 January 1991) was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. One of a group of composers known as the The Turkish Five, Turkish Five who pioneered Music of Turkey#Western influence on Turk ...

, and two years later at the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

, where her teachers were

Pierre Sancan Pierre Sancan (24 October 1916 – 20 October 2008) 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 ...

, Monique Haas, Pierre Fiquet and

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...

. At the age of 16 she graduated with the ''Premier Prix de Piano''. She continued her studies with

Bernhard Ebert Bernhard is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar (1604–1639), Duke of Saxe-Weimar *Bernhard, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen (1901–1984), head of the House of Saxe-Meiningen 1946 ...

at the

Musikhochschule Hannover A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger in ...

Career

At the outset of her career Onay took prizes in leading competitions, including the Marguerite Long–Jacques Thibaud Competition and the

Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition The Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition is a music competition for young pianists that takes place in Bolzano, Italy. It was founded in 1949 by Cesare Nordio in memory of the pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni. History The firs ...

. Onay's international career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. She has played with orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle,

English Chamber Orchestra The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. With a limited performance size, the orchestra spe ...

, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony,

Philharmonia Orchestra The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...

Royal Philharmonic The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London, England. The RPO was established by Thomas Beecham in 1946. In its early days, the orchestra secured profitable recording contracts and important engagemen ...

, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, under such conductors as

Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is a Soviet-born Icelandic pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, ...

, Erich Bergel, Michael Boder, Andrey Boreyko, Jörg Faerber, Edward Gardner,

Neeme Järvi Neeme Järvi (; born 7 June 1937) is an Estonian Americans, Estonian American conductor. Early life Järvi was born in Tallinn. He initially studied music there, and later in Saint Petersburg, Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevge ...

, Emmanuel Krivine,

Ingo Metzmacher Ingo Metzmacher (born 10 November 1957) is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover. Life Metzmacher was born in Hanover, the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher and the research biol ...

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...

, Jose Serebrier, Vassily Sinaisky, Stanislaw Wislocki and Lothar Zagrosek. Onay's festival appearances include Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Mozartfest Würzburg, Newport,

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

and Istanbul. An exceptional Chopin interpreter, 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

, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose Second Piano Concerto (which she has premiered in Turkey and abroad) was dedicated to her. Other contemporary composers who have dedicated works to her are Hubert Stuppner, Denis Dufour, Bujor Hoinic, Jean-Louis Petit, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu and Marc-André Hamelin. She has also given premieres of concertos by Stuppner and Tabakov. Onay holds the titles of State Artist in her native Turkey, and of soloist for the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara. She is “Artist in Residence” at Bilkent University in Ankara and holds an honorary doctorate degrees from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, and from Hacettepe University in Ankara. The Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation awarded its prestigious 2007 Honorary Award Gold Medal to Onay, and she 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 the Honorary Medal of the Bodrum Music Festival in 2018. Onay is Artistic Advisor of the Gümüşlük International Classical Music Festival. Onay is Online Master Teacher at iClassical Academy with whom she has recorded several online Masterclasses.

Recordings

Onay has recorded 20 albums. In 2007, she released live concert recordings of Tchaikovsky's 1st and Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto. In 2008, CPO issued her recording of both Saygun concertos with the

Bilkent Symphony Orchestra The Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Bilkent Senfoni Orkestrası in Turkish language, Turkish, also known as BSO) is a major symphony orchestra of Turkey located in Bilkent, Ankara. It was founded in 1993 by Bilkent University. Since 1994 the orchestra ...

and Howard Griffiths. The American label VAI released a live DVD of her performances of the Grieg Concerto and the Saint-Saëns 2nd Concerto, followed in early 2011 by two DVDs of live performances from the Miami International Piano Festival. Many of Onay's concerts have been broadcast on European radio and television, and in the USA on National Public Radio.

Honours

* Honorary doctorate degrees from

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Boğaziçi Üniversitesi''), also known as Bosphorus University, is a Public university, public research university in Istanbul, Turkey, historically tied to a former American educational insti ...

in Istanbul, and from

Hacettepe University Hacettepe University () is a public research university in Ankara, Turkey. It was established on 8 July 1967. It is ranked first among the Turkish universities by University Ranking by Academic Performance in 2021. The university has two main c ...

in Ankara. * 1987

State Artist State Artist (, also sometimes translated as "National Artist") is an honorary title granted to prominent artists by the government of Turkey for their contributions to the Turkish culture. It was established in 1971 by the President of Turkey ( Ce ...

of the Republic of Turkey. * 2003 Appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the Turkish national committee of

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

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* 2007 Gold Cross of Merit of the Polish nation, awarded by the Polish President

Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010 in an air crash. The aircraft carrying ...

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. * 2011 “Pianist of the Year” Donizetti Classical Music Awards. * 2012 Melvin Jones Fellowship. * 2014 Honorary Medal of the 42nd Istanbul Music Festival. * 2018 Honorary Medal of the Bodrum Music Festival.

Personal life

Onay's mother is the daughter of the Turkish mathematician and scientist Kerim Erim.

References

External links

*
Music of Saygun
{{DEFAULTSORT:Onay, Gulsin Living people Turkish classical pianists State Artists of Turkey 1954 births Turkish people of German descent Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover alumni Musicians from Istanbul Conservatoire de Paris alumni 21st-century Turkish classical pianists 21st-century Turkish women pianists 21st-century Turkish pianists