"Shattering news"
Turkish pianists play benefit concert for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria
Two Turkish piano students from the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar invite you to a benefit concert for the emergency aid in the Turkish-Syrian earthquake region. The pianists Can Çakmur and Emir Ilgen will perform works for piano solo and for piano four hands by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms, among others, on Sunday, February 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus.
Admission is free; donations to the Ahbap and AKUT charities are requested.
"My family and acquaintances are healthy, but I receive harrowing news from the region," says Can Çakmur, who chose two non-governmental organizations as donation recipients in consultation with local people.
The concert is a matter close to the heart of the multiple award-winning piano student from Prof. Grigory Gruzman's Weimar class: "Tens of thousands of people have died and in Turkey alone, a state of emergency has been declared in ten regions."
The one-hour concert program includes György Kurtág's arrangement of Bach's chorale prelude "Aus tiefer Not schrei' ich zu Dir" BWV 687 for piano four hands and Ferruccio Busoni's version of Bach's "Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ" BWV 639. Emir Ilgen will also interpret the first two movements of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata in F-sharp major, op. 78, and the Impromptu in G-flat major, D899, by Franz Schubert.
His fellow student Can Çakmur will play the Chaconne from the Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004 in a version for the left hand, as well as two late piano pieces from the collection op. 118 by Johannes Brahms.
1st prize winner of the 2018 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition and the 2017 Scottish International Piano Competition, Can Çakmur has already made guest appearances at Wigmore Hall in London, Glasgow Concert Hall, Eindhoven Muziekgebouw, Suntory Hall in Tokyo and Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris - as well as at the most prestigious concert venues and festivals in his native Turkey.
His recordings for BIS Records have received critical acclaim and awards worldwide, including two "International Classical Music Awards" for "Solo Recording of the Year" (2019) and as "Young Artist of the Year" (2020), the "Diapason d'Or" (2021) and the "Choc de Classica" (2021 and 2022). In 2022, Çakmur was appointed to a piano professorship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance in London.
Emir Ilgen from the piano class of Prof. Christian Wilm Müller at the Weimar University of Music has already performed as a soloist with the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, the Turkish Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rostov Philharmonic Orchestra, the Antalya State Symphony Orchestra and the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra.
He performed under the conductors Gürer Aykal, Cem Mansur, Can Okan and Tassos Simeonidis. Emir Ilgen won numerous awards at competitions, including 1st prizes at the "International Piano Competition for Young Talents" in Antalya 2019 and at the National Piano Competition "Faruk Erengül" in Istanbul. He won a 2nd prize at the EPTA Piano Competition in Belgium in 2018.
[13 February 2023]