Turkish cellist EFE BALTACIGIL* was lauded by The Philadelphia Inquirer as “a highly individualized solo artist.  He has a gorgeous sound – refined, but with glints of strong personality plus expressive depth brought to every phrase.”  Mr. Baltacigil was awarded a 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant.  He was also selected as a member of the European Concert Hall Association’s (ECHO) Rising Stars program and tours Europe in the 2007-2008 season, performing at major venues in Birmingham, Luxembourg, Vienna, Cologne, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Baden-Baden, having previously performed in London, Brussels and Athens, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.

During the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Baltacigil makes his Lincoln Center recital debut and his Chicago debut at the University of Chicago.  He appears as soloist with the Monroe (LA) Symphony Orchestra and gives recitals at the Baltimore Museum of Art, University of Chicago, Port Washington Library (NY), and JCC of Greater Washington.  He also performs extensively as a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two.

Mr. Baltacigil has performed the Brahms Sextet with Pinchas Zukerman and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall, and participated in Mr. Ma’s Silk Road Project.  He has toured with “Musicians from Marlboro” and appeared in Richard Goode’s Perspectives Series at Carnegie Hall.  In February 2007, he made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut, performing Tchakovsky’s Rococo Variations with the New York Youth Symphony

In February 2005, Mr. Baltacigil came to the attention of the musical world when he and pianist Emanuel Ax performed a Beethoven Cello Sonata at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert with only 10 minutes of rehearsal.  Mr. Baltacigil, the Orchestra’s Associate Principal Cellist, and Mr. Ax, the evening’s soloist, were called upon when a winter snowstorm prevented most of the Orchestra from reaching the concert hall.

A winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Baltacigil made his New York debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, sponsored by The Peter Jay Sharp Prize, and his Washington, DC debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center, sponsored by the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize. 

Mr. Baltacigil was born in Istanbul, Turkey.  He started studying the violin at the age of five and changed to the cello at the age of seven.  He received his Bachelor’s degree from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul in 1998 and an Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2002, where he studied with Peter Wiley and David Soyer.  He was recipient of The Curtis Institute’s Jacqueline DuPre Scholarship.

*[pronounced EFF-ay Bal-ta-chee-GEEL]

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