Aydın Gün Encouragement Award goes to young Turkish pianist

ISTANBUL

Awarded every year since 2012 by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) to promising young classical musicians, the Aydın Gün Encouragement Award of 15,000 Turkish Liras has been granted to the 22-year-old pianist Can Çakmur in its seventh edition.

Born in 1997 in Ankara, Çakmur’s studies with Jun Kanno, Emre Şen and Marcella Crudeli at La Schola Cantorum in Paris influenced him to a great extent.

Since 2012, he has had the chance to work with musicians such as Alan Weiss, Arie Vardi, Ewa Kupiec, Leslie Howard and Robert Levin among others at Mendelssohn-Akademie, The Holland International Music Sessions, Liszt-Akademie Schillingsfürst, and International Academy of Music in Liechtenstein, where he was granted a scholarship.

Çakmur currently pursues his studies with Grigory Gruzman in Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar and continues to work privately with Diane Andersen in Belgium.

He also won the first prize and the Bartók special prize at the 4th International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists. Çakmur is the recipient of the Young Musician of the Year Award of the 5th Donizetti Classical Music Awards, as well as a laureate from the X. Balys Dvarionas Competition for Young Pianists where he won two special awards.

Çakmur will receive his award at the opening ceremony of the 47th Istanbul Music Festival.

The Aydın Gün Encouragement Award is granted to a young musician who’s studying or working in the classical music field every year. The selection committee is headed by İKSV General Director Görgün Taner and consists of conductor Rengim Gökmen, opera director Yekta Kara, violinist Cihat Aşkın, Borusan Sanat General Manager Ahmet Erenli, and İKSV Deputy Director General Yeşim Gürer Oymak.