About this Artist
Turkish American pianist Özgür Aydin made his major concerto debut in 1997 in a performance of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the same year, he won the renowned ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Nippon Music Award in Tokyo—recognition that has since served as the basis for an active and diverse international performing career. He is also a laureate of the Cleveland International Piano Competition.
Aydin has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Germany and Turkey, as well as with the BBC Concert Orchestra (London), the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra (Venezuela), the Slovak Philharmonic, and the Calgary Philharmonic. He is frequently invited to summer music festivals and has appeared at Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Rheingau, Ravinia, and Edinburgh. He is a guest at many prestigious venues, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, Munich’s Herkulessaal, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall.
Aydin has recorded solo piano works by Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Liszt, and Rachmaninoff for the European labels Videal and Yapi Kredi. His performances of complete cycles of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas and five concertos as well as Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier have been praised by critics.
A dedicated chamber musician, Aydin enjoys recurrent collaborations with violinists Midori and Kolja Blacher, cellist Clemens Hagen, violist Naoko Shimizu, and members of the Berlin Philharmonic. A recording with Midori of works by Bloch, Janáček, and Shostakovich was released in fall 2013 on Onyx Classics.
Born in Colorado to Turkish parents, Aydin began his musical studies with Professor Kartal at the Ankara Conservatory in Turkey. He subsequently studied with Peter Katin at the Royal College of Music in London and with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media. He has also received valuable instruction from artists such as Tatiana Nikolayeva and András Schiff.
Aydin lives in Berlin.