“You have to listen to him, he plays like the devil,” composer Aribert Reimann once said of then 16-year-old Turkish pianist Fazil Say.
Fazil Say
Pianist and composer
From 1987 he studied at the conservatories of Düsseldorf and Berlin. He really broke through with winning the “Young Concert Artist” Competition in New York in 1994. Since then he has performed worldwide in numerous venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin and the Konzerthaus Dortmund where he was artist in residence from 2005 to 2010. At the Amsterdam Concertgebouw last season he was Spotlight Artist. He has also played with various orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich and the Dresdner Philharmonie.
Fazil Say made a large number of CD recordings with works by Beethoven, Haydn, Stravinsky and the complete sonatas of Mozart, among others. It earned him various awards including an Edison and four times an ECHO Klassik. Fazil Say is successful not only as a pianist, but also as a composer, in which he regularly reflects the love for the culture of his native Turkey.
Fazil Say remembers his first teacher who instilled in him the passion for improvisation:
“Upon entering, the first thing he asked me was, 'On the grand piano, tell me what you saw and experienced today.' That approach had a profound influence on me as a pianist and composer.”
Quote from an interview with Preludium last year September.