Saturday 11th October 2014 at 7.30 pm

Erdem Misirlioglu (piano)

Piano category winner of the 2008 BBC Young Musician of the year, Erdem had already performed at one of our Summer Soiree concerts for promising young musicians - we have a good record for talent-spotting! - and he now returns to play for us as a fully-fledged professional pianist.

BEETHOVEN: Sonata in D, Opus 10 No.3

BRAHMS: Four pieces for piano, Opus 119

Erdem was born in Ipswich in 1989 to a Turkish father and British mother. Neither of his parents are musicians, but he started his own musical training at the age of six, having piano lessons from the age of nine. At the age of thirteen he was recommended to attend a conservatoire on Saturdays and studied for five years under Mark Fielding at Junior Guildhall. He is now in the third year of his undergraduate course at GSMD, where he has won a full scholarship to study with concert pianist, Martin Roscoe.

In 2006, Erdem was a prizewinner in the International Rachmaninov Competition for Young Pianists, held in the composer’s birth place, and was also awarded the Keyboard Instrument Prize at GSMD. In 2008 he won the Principal’s prize at GSMD and was the piano winner of BBC Young Musician of the Year. Subsequently, he performed Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

He has enjoyed receiving masterclasses from top pianists including Ronan O’Hora, Bernard Roberts, Peter Donohoe and Lang Lang, who said about Erdem’s playing: “Such a special sound...I really enjoyed everything he does, it’s quite stunning playing”.

He is an active performer, regularly appearing as recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. Next season’s concerto performances are to include Liszt’s 1st Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano concerto. His past performances have taken him to France, Poland and Russia and he has played in venues such as St Martin in the Fields, Snape Maltings, Cardiff Millennium Centre and the Wigmore Hall. A recital of Beethoven’s op 109 Sonata and Chopin’s 4 Ballades at the Wigmore Hall was broadcast on Radio 3.

A keen chamber musician, Erdem is part of a piano trio formed with friends at GSMD as well as the Arnold Camerata, a larger ensemble of string and wind players from GSMD and RAM, with whom he recently performed Schubert’s Trout Quintet and Poulenc’s Wind Sextet among other works. He enjoys working with other musicians and always wants chamber music to be a part of his musical life.