Bilkent Symphony Orchestra
Encyclopedia
The Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Bilkent Senfoni Orkestrası in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

 also known as BSO) is a major symphony orchestra of Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 located in Bilkent
Bilkent
Bilkent is a district in Ankara, Turkey with the postal code 06800 where Bilkent University is located.Turkey's first private institution for higher education, Bilkent University has a 400,000m2 construction area on its two campuses...

, Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

. It was founded in 1993 by 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...

. Since 1994 the orchestra is based in Bilkent Concert Hall
Bilkent Concert Hall
Bilkent Concert Hall is a performing arts center in Turkey. It is located in the Bilkent University campus, Ankara. Home to the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the building hosts over 80 concerts per year...

. The BSO is UNICEF Turkey Goodwill Ambassador since 2009.

History

The Bilkent Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1993 as an original artistic project of 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...

. Developed by the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, the orchestra is composed of over 120
120
Year 120 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Fulvus...

 proficient artist
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

s and academician
Academician
The title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art, literary, or scientific academy.In many countries, it is an honorary title. There also exists a lower-rank title, variously translated Corresponding Member or Associate Member, .-Eastern Europe and China:"Academician" may also be a functional...

s of the Faculty from Turkey and 12 countries. Turkish and foreign artists, continuing their postgraduate studies
Postgraduate education
Postgraduate education involves learning and studying for degrees or other qualifications for which a first or Bachelor's degree generally is required, and is normally considered to be part of higher education...

 at the Institute of Music and Performing Arts also participate in concerts to further expand the orchestra. With these characteristics, the BSO is the first private, international and academic, artistic ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 in Turkey.

Awards

Since its foundation, the orchestra has been awarded by several organizations such as Ankara Public Relations Association and Mevlana Foundation. Furthermore, UNICEF has recognized BSO as UNICEF Turkey Goodwill Ambassador
Goodwill Ambassador
Goodwill Ambassador is a collective term sometimes used as a substitute honorific title or a title of honor for an Ambassador of Goodwill; but, most appropriately for a generic recognition, it is a job position or description that is usually indicated following the name of the individual recognized...

 upon its efforts to aid children in need in various regions of the world, specifically for the two CDs released, donating money earned to the earthquake victims of İzmit earthquake
1999 Izmit earthquake
The 1999 İzmit earthquake was a 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck northwestern Turkey on August 17, 1999, at about 3:02am local time. The event lasted for 37 seconds, killing around 17,000 people and leaving approximately half a million people homeless...

 in 1999 together with several concerts given, donating money earned to Pakistan earthquake
2005 Kashmir earthquake
The 2005 Kashmir earthquake was a major earthquake centered in Pakistan-administered Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir, near the city of Muzaffarabad, affecting Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It occurred at 08:52:37 Pakistan Standard Time on 8 October 2005...

 victims and Turkish National Comitee for UNICEF campaigns such as Haydi Kızlar Okula. The BSO was also awarded as the best orchestra of Turkey in 2011 by Andante Music Magazine.

BSO and Ahmet Adnan Saygun

Ahmet Adnan Saygun
Ahmet Adnan Saygun
Ahmed Adnan Saygun was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. Ahmed Adnan Saygun is acknowledged as one of the most important 20th century composers in Turkish music history....

, one of the most prominent composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s and musicologists of Turkey who is also known as the composer of first Turkish opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, Özsoy had a close relationship with Prof. İhsan Doğramacı
Ihsan Dogramaci
Professor İhsan Doğramacı was a Turkish paediatrician, entrepreneur, philanthropist, educationalist and college administrator of Iraqi Turkmen descent born in Arbil, Iraq, then Ottoman Empire....

 who is regarded as one of the most important philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

s promoting music in Turkey and a leading figure for Turkish educational and health system as founder of two foremost universities of Turkey, Hacettepe
Hacettepe University
Hacettepe 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...

 and Bilkent Universities
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...

. Saygun had dedicated his two works to Doğramacı who pioneered the foundation of ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology
Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...

 departments at Turkish conservatoires for which Saygun had asked for many years. Upon this and the establishment of Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts which was seem as a promising and encouraging music school by Saygun, he left his inheritance and works to Bilkent University. Thus, now the university preserves Saygun's some personal belongings such as his piano and his writing table as well as the original forms of his manuscript notes at the Ahmed Adnan Saygun Music Research and Education Center, where Faculty of Music and Performing Arts students give recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....

s and chamber concerts
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 year-round.
Following the foundation of BSO in 1993 which consists of mainly academicians who teach at Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, BSO has assumed responsibility to perform and record Saygun's works. BSO has recorded many works of Saygun such as Yunus Emre Oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...

, piano
Piano concerto
A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...

, viola
Viola concerto
The viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body of musical instruments, usually an orchestra or chamber music ensemble. Early examples of the viola concerto include, among others, Georg Philipp Telemann's concerto in G major, and several concertos by the Stamitz clan...

, cello concertos and symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

 with soloists such as Gülsin Onay
Gülsin Onay
Gülsin Onay is a leading Turkish concert pianist.-Education:Born into a musical family, Gülsin Onay began to play the piano at the age of three. Her first teacher was her mother....

, Hande Dalkılıç
Hande Dalkiliç
Hande Dalkılıç is a Turkish concert pianist.-Biography:She started her piano lessons with Prof. Güherdal Karamanoğlu Çakırsoy. She enrolled in the Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performing Arts in 1989 and studied under Prof. Ersin Onay. She graduated from the Music Department in 1996...

, Tim Hugh, Mirjam Tschoppand and Arturo Bonucci as well as under the baton of conductors such as Howard Griffiths (conductor)
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...

, Rodolfo Bonucci, Rengim Gökmen
Rengim Gökmen
Rengim Gokmen is a Turkish conductor. He is the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Presidential Symphony Orchestra and General Director of Turkish State Opera and Ballet.-Early life and education:...

 and Erol Erdinç. Furthermore, the orchestra's national label BMP (Bilkent Music Production) has supported some soloists to perform Saygun's works and made effort to release the albums which consists of Saygun's works in collaboration with several orchestras such as Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra
Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra
The Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra is a Turkish symphony orchestra based in Istanbul.Founded in 1945 as the Istanbul Municipality City Orchestra, its first principal conductor was Cemal Reşit Rey. In 1972 it became the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra...

.

Moreover, in collaboration with Turkish Education Foundation (tr: Türk Eğitim Vakfı-TEV), Ahmed Adnan Saygun Music Research and Education Center has requested to compose an opera focusing on Saygun's life and vision due to his 100th birthday in 2007. The libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...

 for opera was written by Şefik Kahramankaptan and the opera named Saygun Emre was composed by Yiğit Aydın who is also an academician at Bilkent University. The scene Bequest (Vasiyet) of Saygun Emre opera at which Saygun leave his inheritance to Bilkent University and İhsan Doğramacı appeared as a character was performed at Bilkent Concert Hall
Bilkent Concert Hall
Bilkent Concert Hall is a performing arts center in Turkey. It is located in the Bilkent University campus, Ankara. Home to the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the building hosts over 80 concerts per year...

 by BSO in 2009.

Performances and Recordings

Starting as a Sinfonietta
Sinfonietta (orchestra)
A Sinfonietta is a name for a musical group that is larger than a chamber ensemble but smaller than a full-size or symphony orchestra.There are many orchestras bearing the name "Sinfonietta", including:* American Sinfonietta...

, the symphonic orchestra now has the identity of an ensemble of orchestras, comprising the Bilkent Chamber Orchestra an Ensemble of Wind Instruments and various other orchestral formations. With Turkish and foreign guest conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

s, soloist
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

s and choir
Choir
A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

s, the ensemble of orchestras has distinguished itself through its season events of over 80
80
Year 80 was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Augustus and Domitianus...

 concerts per year and the television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and radio broadcasts of these performances.

The national label Bilkent Music Production has released over 50 CD’s of the orchestras concerts. Amongst the orchestra's recordings are the Ahmet Adnan Saygun
Ahmet Adnan Saygun
Ahmed Adnan Saygun was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. Ahmed Adnan Saygun is acknowledged as one of the most important 20th century composers in Turkish music history....

 concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...

s with Gülsin Onay
Gülsin Onay
Gülsin Onay is a leading Turkish concert pianist.-Education:Born into a musical family, Gülsin Onay began to play the piano at the age of three. Her first teacher was her mother....

 under the baton of 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...

; Kamran Ince
Kamran Ince
Kamran N. İnce is a Turkish-American composer.- Life :Ince was born in Glendive, Montana, and at the age of six moved with his family to Turkey. He entered the Ankara State Conservatory at the age of ten, in 1971, where he began studying cello and piano, and took composition lessons with İlhan Baran...

 symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

 and concertos with Kamran Ince
Kamran Ince
Kamran N. İnce is a Turkish-American composer.- Life :Ince was born in Glendive, Montana, and at the age of six moved with his family to Turkey. He entered the Ankara State Conservatory at the age of ten, in 1971, where he began studying cello and piano, and took composition lessons with İlhan Baran...

 as solist as well for Naxos
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...

 and CPO
Classic Produktion Osnabrück
Classic Produktion Osnabrück is a record label founded in 1986 by Georg Ortmann and several others. Its declared mission is to fill niches in the recorded classical repertory, with an emphasis on romantic, late romantic and 20th-century music...

 and the productions released in 2007 including Ahmet Adnan Saygun
Ahmet Adnan Saygun
Ahmed Adnan Saygun was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. Ahmed Adnan Saygun is acknowledged as one of the most important 20th century composers in Turkish music history....

’s piano
Piano concerto
A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...

, violin
Violin concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...

, viola
Viola concerto
The viola concerto is a concerto contrasting a viola with another body of musical instruments, usually an orchestra or chamber music ensemble. Early examples of the viola concerto include, among others, Georg Philipp Telemann's concerto in G major, and several concertos by the Stamitz clan...

 and violoncello
Violoncello concerto
A cello concerto is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments....

 concertos by CPO in collaboration with Peermusic
Peermusic
Peer music is a United States based independent music publisher.-History:Ralph Peer, a field recording engineer and A&R representative for Victor Records, went on a scouting trip to Bristol, Tennessee. For two weeks, he recorded artists such as Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family on what would...

 and the Tabakov
Emil Tabakov
Emil Tabakov is a Bulgarian conductor, composer, and double-bass player. He is the former chief conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. He has composed seven symphonies, instrumental concertos, and a requiem to date....

 concertos by Naxos Records
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...

.

Through events such as the Bilkent Concert Series, Turkish Composers Week, Education Concerts and The Bilkent International Anatolia Music Festival, the orchestra aims to bring a wide range of activities to large audiences, to spread the appreciation of music at national level, undertake international activities and develop cooperation with institutions abroad. Along these objectives the orchestra has toured to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 (1998), Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 (Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held every year in summer time all over the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany....

 2000,2011), Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 (2001), Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 (2000) Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 (2002-2004 Montreux Festival) and to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

 (2004)
Among the artists the orchestra has performed with are Valery Afanassiev
Valery Afanassiev
- Life :Valery Afanassiev was born in Moscow. He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Emil Gilels and Yakov Zak. In 1969 he was the winner of the Bach Competition in Leipzig, and three years later at the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels...

, Pierre Amoyal
Pierre Amoyal
Pierre Amoyal , is a French violinist. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, graduating at age 12 with a First Prize . He then won the Ginette Neveu Prize in 1963, and the Paganini Prize in 1964. At age 17, he traveled to Los Angeles for five years of study with Jascha Heifetz, which...

, Alison Balsom
Alison Balsom
Alison Louise Balsom is an English trumpet soloist.-Early life:Balsom was born in Hertfordshire. She attended the Tannery Drift Primary School, then the Greneway Middle School and the Meridian School, all in Royston, Hertfordshire...

, İdil Biret
Idil Biret
İdil Biret is a Turkish concert pianist, renowned for her interpretations of the Romantic repertoire.-Education:...

, Han-Na Chang
Han-na Chang
Han-Na Chang is a South Korean cellist and conductor.-Childhood:She was born in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea to Korean parents. Chang began studying piano at age 3, and began her study in cello three years later at age 6...

, Robert Cohen
Robert Cohen
Robert Cohen is a Canadian comedy writer. He was raised in Calgary, Alberta and has written for The Simpsons , The Wonder Years, The Ben Stiller Show, MADtv, Just Shoot Me!, Father of the Pride, and American Dad!...

, Jean-Philippe Collard
Jean-Philippe Collard
Jean-Philippe Collard is a renowned French pianist who is known for his interpretations of the works of Gabriel Fauré and Camille Saint-Saëns.Born into a musical family, he started playing the piano at age five...

, Jose Cura
José Cura
José Cura is a prominent operatic tenor known for his intense and original interpretations of his characters, notably Verdi’s Otello and Saint-Saëns’ Samson, as well as for his unconventional and innovative concert performances. He is also able to perform high baritone roles with the extended...

, Nikolai Demidenko
Nikolai Demidenko
Nikolai Demidenko is a Russian pianist.Demidenko studied at the Moscow Gnessin School with Anna Kantor and at the Moscow Conservatoire under Dmitri Bashkirov. Demidenko was a medallist at the 1976 Montreal International Piano Competition and the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Competition...

, Emre Elivar
Emre Elivar
Emre Elivar is a Turkish concert pianist.Emre Elivar began his studies and graduated from State Conservatoire in Ankara...

, Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves
Denyce Graves is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Early life:Graves was born on March 7, 1964, to Charles Graves and Dorothy Graves-Kenner. She is the middle of three children and was raised by her mother on Galveston Street, S.W., in the Bellevue section of Washington...

, Janine Jansen
Janine Jansen
Janine Jansen is a violinist. She began to study the violin at age 6. Her father and both her brothers are also musicians. Her mother is a classical singer and is a sister of the bass Peter Kooy...

, Sumi Jo, Suna Kan
Suna Kan
Suna Kan, born on October 21, 1936 in Adana, Turkey. Great Turkish violinist.She started playing the violin at the age of five and gave her first public concerts when she was only nine years old, performing Mozart's A major and Viotti's A minor violin concertos with the Presidential Symphony...

, Olga Kern
Olga Kern
Olga Kern is a Russian classical pianist. Born as Olga Pushechnikova to a family of musicians with ties to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, she later adopted her mother's maiden name professionally...

, Albert Dohmen, Lang Lang
Lang Lang (pianist)
Lang Lang , born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances,...

, Elisabeth Leonskaja
Elisabeth Leonskaja
Elisabeth Leonskaja is a noted Georgian pianist and teacher. She was born on November 23, 1945 to a Russian family living in Tbilisi, then the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic....

, Mischa Maisky
Mischa Maisky
Mischa Maisky is a Latvian cellist.Maisky began studies at the Leningrad Conservatory and later with Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory whilst pursuing a concert career throughout the Soviet Union. In 1966 he won 6th Prize at the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition. In 1970,...

, Shlomo Mintz
Shlomo Mintz
Shlomo Mintz is an Israeli violin virtuoso, violist and conductor. He regularly appears with orchestras and conductors on the international scene and is heard in recitals and chamber music concerts around the world.- Awards :...

, Christiane Oelze
Christiane Oelze
Christiane Oelze is a German soprano. From 2003 to 2008 she taught singing at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf.- External links :* *...

, Gülsin Onay
Gülsin Onay
Gülsin Onay is a leading Turkish concert pianist.-Education:Born into a musical family, Gülsin Onay began to play the piano at the age of three. Her first teacher was her mother....

, Güher-Süher Pekinel
Pekinel sisters
Güher Pekinel and Süher Pekinel as identical twins, are Turkish pianists performing mostly in duet.-Early years:...

, Mikhail Pletnev
Mikhail Pletnev
Mikhail Vasilievich Pletnev is a Russian pianist, conductor, and composer.-Life and career:Pletnev was born into a very musical family in Arkhangelsk, then part of the Soviet Union; his father played and taught the bayan, and his mother the piano...

, Viktoria Postnikova
Viktoria Postnikova
Viktoria Valentinovna Postnikova is a Russian pianist.-Biography:Postnikova was born in Moscow into a family of musicians. She entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory at age six, studying with E.B. Musaelian. She graduated in 1967, having studied there and in postgraduate...

, Vadim Repin
Vadim Repin
Vadim Repin is a Belgian Russian violinist who currently lives in Austria....

, Olivier Charlier, György Sandor
György Sándor
György Sándor was a Hungarian pianist, writer, student and friend of Béla Bartók, and champion of his music.- Early years :...

, Fazıl Say
Fazil Say
Fazıl Say , is a Turkish pianist and composer born in Ankara, Turkey.-Biography:Born in 1970 in Ankara, Turkey, Fazıl Say started playing the piano at the age of four. He continued his music training in Ankara State Conservatory as a student of Special Status for Highly Talented Children and...

, Hüseyin Sermet
Hüseyin Sermet
Hüseyin Sermet is a Turkish pianist and composer. He is a Doctor Honoris Causa by the Boğaziçi and Marmara universities, and was named a State Artist in 1991. He is Co-President of ADAP , based in Paris.-External links:* * www.adapinternational.org...

, Sayaka Shoji
Sayaka Shoji
is a Japanese classical violinist. She is the first Japanese and youngest winner at the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1999.She was born into an artistic family and spent her childhood in Siena, Italy. She studied at Hochschule für Musik Köln under Zakhar Bron and graduated in 2004...

, Akiko Suwanai
Akiko Suwanai
is a Japanese classical violinist.She was the youngest winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990. In addition, she won second place in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in 1989 and is a laureate of the International Japan Competition.She has studied with Toshiya Eto at the...

, Alexander Ghindin
Alexander Ghindin
Alexander Ghindin is a Russian pianist. He won the fourth prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1994 and was the youngest laureate ever...

, Nicola Benedetti
Nicola Benedetti
- Early life and the Yehudi Menuhin School :Benedetti was born in West Kilbride, North Ayrshire to an Italian father and a Scottish mother. She started to learn the violin at the age of four...

, Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer
Sabine Meyer is a German classical clarinetist.-Biography:Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist...

, Boris Berezovsky
Boris Berezovsky (pianist)
- Biography :Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. Following his London début at the Wigmore Hall in 1988, The Times described him as "an artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power."In May 2005...

, Simona Houda-Šaturová
Simona Houda-Šaturová
Simona Houda-Šaturová is a Slovak classical soprano who has had an active international career performing in operas, concerts, and recitals since the early 1990s. In 2001 she was honored with a Thalia Award and in 2007 she won the Charlotte and Walter Hamel Award for outstanding vocal achievement...

, Emmanuel Pahud
Emmanuel Pahud
Emmanuel Pahud is a Swiss flute player.He was born in Geneva, Switzerland. His father is of French and Swiss background and his mother is French. The Berlin-based flutist is most known for his baroque and classical flute repertory....

, Sharon Isbin
Sharon Isbin
Sharon Isbin is a widely-recorded American classical guitarist, recording artist, concertizer, and the founder of the Guitar Department at the Juilliard School.-Early life and education:...

 Turkish State Polyphonic, Rome Philharmonic
Accademia Filarmonica Romana
The Accademia Filarmonica Romana is an orchestra based in Rome, Italy. It was established in 1821....

, Bulgarian State Radio and Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choirs.

The BSO has performed under guest conductors such 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...

, Gürer Aykal
Gürer Aykal
Gürer Aykal is a Turkish conductor and Adjunct Professor at Bilkent University. He has been the musical director and principal conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra since 1999.-Education:...

, Serge Baudo
Serge Baudo
Serge Baudo is a French conductor, the son of the oboist Étienne Baudo. He is the nephew of the cellist Paul Tortelier....

, Jean-Claude Casadesus
Jean-Claude Casadesus
Jean-Claude Casadesus is a French conductor.Casadesus was born in Paris on December 7, 1935, the son of actress Gisèle Casadesus and her husband Lucien Pascal...

, Alexander Sergeyevich Dmitriyev, Jean Fournet
Jean Fournet
Jean Fournet was a French conductor.Fournet’s father was a flutist who gave him some instruction on the flute and music theory. Fournet was then trained at the Conservatoire de Paris in flute by Gaston Blanquart and Marcel Moyse, and conducting by Philippe Gaubert...

, Howard Griffiths
Howard Griffiths
Howard Griffiths may refer to:*Howard Griffiths , British conductor*Howard Griffiths , British plant scientist*Howard Griffiths , British television presenter...

, Peter Gülke, Ernest Martinez Izquierdo, Yoel Levi
Yoel Levi
Yoel Levi is a musician and conductor. Born in Romania, he grew up in Israel. He studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, earning a Master of Arts degree with distinction. He also studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music under Mendi Rodan. Levi won the 1978 International Besançon Competition...

, Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky is a Russian conductor.-Biography:Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. His parents were the noted conductor and pedagogue Nikolai Anosov and soprano Natalya Rozhdestvenskaya...

, Nello Santi
Nello Santi
Nello Santi is an Italian conductor. He is often called "Papa Santi" by his fellow musicians to show their high respect for his work.-Biography:...

, Jose Serebrier
José Serebrier
José Serebrier is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He married American soprano Carole Farley in 1969.- Youth :Serebrier was born in Montevideo, and first conducted an orchestra at the age of eleven, while at school. The school orchestra toured the country, which meant he was able to notch up...

, Lior Shambadal, Vlodymir Sirenko and Emil Tabakov
Emil Tabakov
Emil Tabakov is a Bulgarian conductor, composer, and double-bass player. He is the former chief conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Bilkent Symphony Orchestra. He has composed seven symphonies, instrumental concertos, and a requiem to date....


Directorship and Venues

Continuing its 2010-11 concert season under the artistic direction of Işın Metin with music director Klaus Weise, the orchestra and its ensembles welcome audiences at the Bilkent Concert Hall
Bilkent Concert Hall
Bilkent Concert Hall is a performing arts center in Turkey. It is located in the Bilkent University campus, Ankara. Home to the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the building hosts over 80 concerts per year...

(800) and Bilkent ODEON (4000) in Ankara
Ankara
Ankara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....

, Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory High School
Bilkent Erzurum
İhsan Doğramacı Foundation Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory High School , commonly referred to as Bilkent Erzurum or OBEL,is a both private foundation and state funded school under Bilkent University, located in Palandöken, Erzurum, Turkey...

  concert hall (300) in Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...

  and Bilkent Erbil College concert hall (750) in Erbil
Arbil
Arbil / Hewlêr is the fourth largest city in Iraq after Baghdad, Basra and Mosul...

, Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

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External links

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