Gülsin Onay

Gülsin Onay (born 12 September 1954) is a Turkish classical 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.

When she was 6 years old, Gülsin Onay gave her first concert on TRT Radio Istanbul. She continued her studies with Bernhard Ebert at the Musikhochschule Hannover. Onay's international career has spanned 80 countries across all continents, from Venezuela to Japan. She has played with orchestras including Dresden Staatskapelle, English Chamber Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic, Munich Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, under such conductors as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Erich Bergel, Michael Boder, Andrey Boreyko, Jörg Faerber, Edward Gardner, Neeme Järvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Ingo Metzmacher, Esa-Pekka Salonen, José Serebrier, Vassily Sinaisky, Stanislaw Wislocki and Lothar Zagrosek. Onay's festival appearances include Berlin, Warsaw, Granada, Mozartfest Würzburg, Newport, Schleswig-Holstein and Istanbul.

An exceptional Chopin interpreter, Onay was in 2007 honoured with the award of a State Medal by the Polish nation. She is also acknowledged worldwide as the finest interpreter of the music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun, whose works feature prominently in her concerts and recordings, and whose Second Piano Concerto (which she has premiered in Turkey and abroad) was dedicated to her. She is “Artist in Residence” at Bilkent University in Ankara and holds an honorary doctorate degrees from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, and from Hacettepe University in Ankara. The Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation awarded its prestigious 2007 Honorary Award Gold Medal to Onay, and she was named "Pianist of the Year" in the 2011 Donizetti Classical Music Awards. In 2014 she was awarded the Honorary Medal of the 42nd Istanbul Music Festival, and the Honorary Medal of the Bodrum Music Festival in 2018.

Recordings Onay has recorded 20 albums. In 2007, she released live concert recordings of Tchaikovsky's 1st and Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto. In 2008, CPO issued her recording of both Saygun concertos with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra and Howard Griffiths. The American label VAI released a live DVD of her performances of the Grieg Concerto and the Saint-Saëns 2nd Concerto, followed in early 2011 by two DVDs of live performances from the Miami International Piano Festival. In 2021 her recordings of the piano concertos by Ulvi Cemal Erkin (first commercial recording) Khachaturian, conductor José Serebrier and the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra were released by the Gramola label.

Many of Onay's concerts have been broadcast on European radio and television, and in the USA on National Public Radio.

Honours

Honorary doctorate degrees from Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, and from Hacettepe University in Ankara. 1987 State Artist of the Republic of Turkey. 2003 Appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the Turkish national committee of UNICEF. 2007 Gold Cross of Merit of the Polish nation, awarded by the Polish President Lech Kaczyński for her contributions to Polish culture through her outstanding performances of the music of Chopin. 2007 Honorary Award Medal of the Sevda-Cenap And Music Foundation. 2011 “Pianist of the Year” Donizetti Classical Music Awards. 2012 Melvin Jones Fellowship. 2014 Honorary Medal of the 42nd Istanbul Music Festival. 2018 Honorary Medal of the Bodrum Music Festival.

Personal life Onay's mother is the daughter of the Turkish mathematician and scientist Kerim Erim. Gülsin Onay is married to the Cambridge mathematics professor Tony Scholl.