Bach series

Sat 22 March 2014

Trinity College

Gűlsin Onay's truly international career has spanned
over 55 countries across all continents. She has
recorded 20 albums that illustrate the breadth of
her repertoire as well as her interpretive power.
Gűlsin Onay was honoured with the award of a
State Medal by the Polish nation in recognition of
her exceptional Chopin interpretations.

"Onay played - with welcome transparency -
to absolute perfection".
Ben Finane - New Jersey Star -Ledger, USA

A DAZZLING SUMMER FOR GULSIN ONAY

Gulsin Onay just played at Luxembourg's internationally acclaimed Wiltz Festival on July 24th. Her programme included works by Haydn, Beethoven and Chopin, as well as her mentor Saygun, for whom she is known to be the most powerful advocate worldwide.

At the Festival Piano Pic she played Saygun, alongside Haydn, Schubert and Liszt - the very same and most enchanting programme she recorded this spring for the Sono Luminus title in the United States.

August found Gulsin Onay at Gumusluk Classical Music Festival, where she given two concerts and masterclasses. The first concert on the 3rd was a Liszt Bicentennial tribute with pianist Ilya Itin: "2 Concertos, 2 Pianos, 2 Virtuosos". She then played her recital programme on the 13th for her devoted festival audience.

Gülsin Onay's busy summer schedule had kicked-off with her performance of the Erkin Concerto with the Philharmonia and their conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen at the opening of the Izmir Festival in June. The legendary concert was much lauded by the press and Turkey's leading music critic Serhan Bali wrote in the national daily Radikal:

"The artist totally hypnotized everybody in the hall that night with her performance from the very beginning till the end of the concerto. She grew prodigiously at the piano. The fortissimos cascaded gurgling, pianissimos caressed the ears in the crystal-clear acoustics of the Saygun hall. In the first movement's atmosphere of intense struggle that rises from the contrast between the two themes, Onay gave as good as she got from the virtuoso Philharmonia machine. We were looking forward to the 'Turkish' style solo of the bass clarinet in the second movement and it did not let us down. This and the following movement flowed perfectly and in perfect harmony between the orchestra and the conductor. The Philharmonia sounded like they had been playing Erkin for 40 years."

Starting the summer at this high-note, Gulsin Onay concluded the season at Schleswig-Holstein Festival. She played Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto with the NDR Radio Philharmonic on August 25th.

Cost: £15, £10, £5 children £ 5 students at the door