About

Can Çakmur | Piano

Pianist Can Çakmur is the first prize winner of the 10th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in 2018 (where he also won the Chamber Music Prize) and the Scottish International Piano Competition in 2017.

Can’s recordings with BIS Records have been received enthusiastically by the international press, and he has been awarded two consecutive ICMA Awards (a first in the awards’ history) for the Solo Recording of the Year and Young Artist of the Year, as well as Choc de Classica, Diapason d’Or, Album of the Month by International Piano, and full marks by Crescendo, Gramophone, Pizzicato, and many more. His album, “Without Borders,” focusing on music by Enescu, Bartok, Saygun, and Mitropoulos, was released in May 2022.

Can is currently working on an 11-album survey of Schubert’s complete major works in combination with other pieces inspired by Schubert for BIS Records. They will be released between 2022 and 2028, the 200th anniversary of Schubert’s death.

He has performed in a variety of concert halls worldwide, including Wigmore Hall in London, Glasgow Concert Hall, Eindhoven Muziekgebouw, Tokyo Opera City, Suntory Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton, as well as the most prestigious concert venues in his homeland, Turkey. He has appeared in the most important classical music festivals in the country, including the Istanbul Music Festival, where he headlined the opening concert in 2015 with the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra under Sascha Goetzel.

Recent highlights include the Japanese premiere of Thomas Adés’ In Seven Days at the Suntory Hall with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra conducted by Masato Suzuki, the closing concert of Festa Musica MUZA Kawasaki with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tadaaki Otaka, and an excellently received recital debut at the Foundation Louis Vuitton.

Can’s recitals and concerts have been recorded and broadcasted by BBC 3, Radio Musique France, Arte, NHK, Turkish National Radio and Television, Deutschlandfunk, and Classic FM.

Among Can’s regular chamber music partners are Veriko Tchumburidze and Dorukhan Doruk (as Vecando Trio formed in 2021), cellist Alexandre Castro-Balbi, and contrabassist Dominik Wagner. Alexandre and Can are currently working on a recording of Beethoven’s complete piano-cello works for Passavant, to be released in 2023.

Can is the recipient of the “2015 Young Musician Award” at the 5th Donizetti Classical Music Awards in Istanbul, the 2018 DAAD Prize of the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar, and the 2018 Aydin Gün Encouragement Award by the Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation.

As an avid writer and speaker, Can has written over 50 articles for the Turkish classical music magazine “Andante” and occasionally gives lectures on music across a variety of platforms. Can Çakmur is a part of the “G & S Pekinel Young Musicians on the World Stages” scholarship program.

His first musical impulses came from Emre Sen, Jun Kanno, and Marcella Crudeli. He later studied with Diane Andersen privately and with Grigory Gruzman at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar.

Reviews

“Truly great recordings of Schubert’s piano sonatas are rare (Schnabel, Kempff, Brendel and, more recently, Volodos come to mind), but I know of few to match Can Çakmur’s supple and penetrating confirmation of Schubert’s genius.”

— INTERNATIONAL PIANO MAGAZINE, ALBUM OF THE MONTH JUNE 2023

“As Çakmur writes, “None of the pieces seem to have an end - instead, they vanish into thin air. ” A treat from start to finish, simmered by an authentic musician and an equally wise and sensitive commentator: a short video on YouTube and his presentation texts bear witness to this.”

— DIAPASON

“In hands as gifted as Çakmur’s, however, their cumulative effect is all but overwhelming. ...Given the wealth and range of his musical imagination, not to mention his genuine pianistic gifts, I believe Can Çakmur is someone from whom we can confidently and happily expect to hear a great deal more.”

— GRAMOPHONE MAGAZINE

“There’s an ease with which Can Çakmur communicates that’s rarely found in performers so young. It’s immediately apparent when you hear his playing.”

— BACHTRACK

“This very first recording by the young Turkish pianist Can Çakmur is a distinctive achievement. Comprising a wide range of works from Haydn to modern Turkish and Japanese composers, it is a wonderful tribute to the vision and depth of this already mature artist. Based on an analytical approach that doesn’t affect the spontaneity of his interpretations, Can Cakmur’s soundscapes and his ability to share energies with the listener makes this a superb release.”

— INTERNATIONAL CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARDS

“The contest's clear and deserving winner, however, was Ankara-born Can Çakmur, who dared to be simple in Beethoven's lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto, and to let the music speak for itself, in a wonderfully luminuous, graceful account that felt entirely sincere and heartfelt.The contest's clear and deserving winner, however, was Ankara-born Can Çakmur, who dared to be simple in Beethoven's lyrical Fourth Piano Concerto, and to let the music speak for itself, in a wonderfully luminuous, graceful account that felt entirely sincere and heartfelt.”

— DAVID KETTLE, THE SCOTSMAN