CAN ÇAKMUR​

Thank You !

It is difficult to capture my astonishment on being awarded this prize in words. Not in my wildest dreams could I imagine this coming true. 

I would like to use this space to remember Dina Ugorskaja who passed away last September. Her enchanted playing and especially her swan song, her last CD will forever be an inspiration for all musicians and music lovers. 

A recording, more so than a concert, is a collective effort of many people and here I would like to express my gratitude to those wonderful musicians whose imaginations and visions of sound blended in this album. Ingo Petry, the tonmeister, and Hidemi Okubo, the piano technician, not only created a sound world that suits each composer on the album but also through our discussions during the recording process brought forth a new understanding of the composers’ text. This is what made the recording process so rewarding: it was a time of discoveries; an attempt to understand the music beyond the notes on the paper through our different musical visions. 

If it weren’t for Hamamatsu Cultural Foundation and Noriko Ogawa, the President of the Jury of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, this recording would never have existed. Their artistic vision and immaculate planning made it possible. Shigeru Kawai provided a breathtakingly good instrument. Working with BIS Records and its wonderful team is a dream. Thank you all, Emilia, Robert, Rob and everybody! 

I would like to extend my gratitude to my teachers Grigory Gruzman and Diane Andersen and as a part of TUPRAS sponsored YMWS project, my mentors Güher & Süher Pekinel as well as brilliant composers Fazil Say and Fuyuhiko Sasaki who so kindly let me record their works.

I feel privileged to continue our collaboration with BIS. It was a childhood dream of mine to record the arrangement of Schubert’s Schwanengesang by Liszt. It was a very emotional experience to work on a recording of this masterpiece with Ingo. Shigeru Kawai once again provided the perfect instrument for this music. The new SACD will include Liszt’s arrangement of Schubert’s Schwanengesang and the 4 Valses Oubliées.