Fazıl Say

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Born in 1970 in Ankara, Say started playing the piano at the age of four, continued his music training in Ankara State Conservatory as a student of “Special Status for highly talented kids” and graduated from piano and compositon in 1987.

As he continued his studies in Dusseldorf Music Academy with German scholarship, he got 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, who won Europe Young Concert Soloists Competition in 1994, got the first place in the World Competition that was done in New York in 1995 and had a big step in his career.

Besides playing the piano, he composed many oratorios, piano concertos, pieces of music for chamber, orchestra and piano and many other songs. Some of his composed pieces include Nazim and Metin Altiok Oratorios, four piano concertos, his orchestra piece “Albert Einstein” commisioned by Zurich Orchestra and his ballet named “Patara” which is commissioned by Wien Mozart Commitee and was composed for Mozart’s 250th birth year celebration.

With his concerts in all over the world and his outstanding CDs, he became a world famous pianist and is honoured with more than 20 international prizes.

Say is admired by thousands of musiclovers and he performed with with orchestras like New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Berlin Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Israil Philharmonic, St.Petersburg Philharmonic, National France Orchestra and Tokyo Symphony which are conducted by many famous conductors. 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 composed piano piece that was inspired by Turkish Folk singer and poet Asik Veysel’s song named “Black Earth” was listed in 6th place in American Billboards.

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

 http://fazilsay.com/en/biography/