Child music prodigy conducts presidential orchestra

ANKARA

A 12-year-old violinist has taken the stage as conductor and soloist at a concert held by the Presidential Symphony Orchestra as part of the April 23 National Sovereignty and Children’s Day celebrations.

Considered one of the violin virtuosos of the future, sixth-grade student Atahan Dinç won the admiration of everyone watching the concert and interpreted Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi’s most famous and most frequently performed work, “Seasons,” as conductor and soloist.

Dinç made the whole hall feel the enthusiasm of National Sovereignty and Children’s Day with his performance on April 19.

Participating in the violin lessons of his older brother, Dinç started his journey with the violin after being discovered by famous violinist Can Özhan.

Speaking to journalists, Dinç said he practices his violin for at least five hours every day.

“When I first started my violin education, I progressed quite quickly, and this gave me a great advantage. At that time, I didn’t practice much because I didn’t fully understand the seriousness of this job, but now that I perform on stages like this, I practice a lot,” Dinç said.

Stating that he was very excited to conduct the presidential orchestra, Dinç said that he was quite nervous at first, but the orchestra members’ words of encouragement and warm treatment made him happy.

Noting that he wants to represent Türkiye on an international scale in the following years, Dinç said that the violin virtuoso he listens to the most and looks up to with his stance, technique and musical thoughts on stage is Grammy award-winner Maxim Vengerov.

Dinç added that he and his fellow musician friends try to improve their musical performances by giving advice to each other, and urged his audience to listen to his concerts by “thinking and feeling the music,” going into the concert hall as a blank slate and letting his music do its job.