İdil Biret facts for kids

Quick facts for kids İdil Biret
İdil Biret at Küçükçekmece, İstanbul in 2012
Background information
Born	(1941-11-21) November 21, 1941 (age 83) Ankara, Turkey
Genres	Classical music
Occupation(s)	Concert pianist
Instruments	Piano

İdil Biret (born 21 November 1941) is a Turkish concert pianist. She is known for her amazing talent and for playing many difficult classical pieces.

Early Musical Training

İdil Biret started playing piano when she was just five years old. Her first teacher was Mithat Fenmen. He had learned from famous musicians like Nadia Boulanger and Alfred Cortot.

When İdil was seven, the Turkish government passed a special law. This law allowed her to go to France to study music. She attended the Paris Conservatory in France. There, she learned from Nadia Boulanger and Jean Doyen. She finished her studies and won three awards by the time she was 15. She also continued to learn from Alfred Cortot and Wilhelm Kempff.

A Career in Music

İdil Biret loved music from a very young age. She was interested in music when she was only two years old. By age four, she was already playing pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. Later, she enjoyed listening to music by Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Performing with Orchestras

From the age of 16, İdil Biret played as a solo pianist with many famous orchestras around the world. These included the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

She worked with many great conductors. Some of them were Pierre Monteux, Erich Leinsdorf, and Aaron Copland. İdil Biret also performed at important music festivals. These festivals took place in cities like Berlin, Montreal, and Istanbul.

Her first concert in the United States was in Boston on November 22, 1963. Just before she was about to play, the conductor announced sad news. The President of the United States had been shot. Even with this shocking news, İdil Biret still performed her concert.

Judging Piano Competitions

İdil Biret has also been a judge at several major piano competitions. These include the Van Cliburn competition in the US and the Queen Elisabeth competition in Belgium. She helped decide which young pianists were the best.

Recording Music

İdil Biret has made more than 100 recordings of her piano playing. These recordings are on labels like EMI and Naxos. She has recorded many famous classical works.

Some of her recordings include:

• The piano concertos by Camille Saint-Saëns.
• The first-ever recording of Franz Liszt's piano versions of all nine Ludwig van Beethoven symphonies.
• All the solo piano works and concertos by Frédéric Chopin.
• All the works by Johannes Brahms and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
• A piano version of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet music The Firebird.

She is especially known for her Chopin recordings. In 1995, she won a special award in Poland called the 'Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin' for these recordings. By 2004, her Naxos CDs had sold two million copies worldwide. Naxos gave her a platinum disc to celebrate this achievement.

Her recording of the Pierre Boulez sonatas also won the 'Golden Diapason' award in 2004. It was chosen as one of the best recordings of the year by a French newspaper.

Playing Complete Works

İdil Biret has performed all of Beethoven's and Brahms's piano works in concert series. In the 1980s, she played all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. She also played Liszt's piano versions of all nine Beethoven symphonies. These performances were even broadcast live on the radio.

In the 1990s, she played all five of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos. In 1997, she performed all of Brahms's solo piano works in Germany. This was during the 100th anniversary of Brahms's death.

Her recordings also include 20th-century classical pieces. She recorded the three piano sonatas by Pierre Boulez and works by György Ligeti. In the 1970s, she recorded works by composers like Anton Webern, Alban Berg, and Sergei Prokofiev.

Biography and Recent Work

In 2006, a book about İdil Biret was written by a French author, Prof. Dominique Xardel. The book is called "Idil Biret - Une Pianiste Turque en France." It has been translated into Turkish and German.

Between 2008 and 2009, İdil Biret released a large set of 19 CDs. This set included all of Beethoven's piano sonatas and concertos. It also had her 1986 recordings of Liszt's piano versions of Beethoven's nine symphonies. She is the only pianist to have performed and recorded all of these major Beethoven works.

In 2014, she shared her interest in improvising music. She also mentioned the very long and difficult piece called Opus Clavicembalisticum by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji.

Awards and Recognition

İdil Biret has received many honors for her contributions to music.

State Artist of Turkey

Since 1971, she has held the title of State Artist in Turkey. This is a special honor given by the Turkish government to artists who have greatly contributed to Turkish culture.

Other Prestigious Awards

In 1995, her recordings of Chopin's complete works won the "Grand Prix du Disque Frédéric Chopin" in Poland. In the same year, she received the "Diapason d'Or" prize in France for her recording of Boulez's sonatas.

She has also received other important awards:

• The Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize in Boston, US.
• The Harriet Cohen/Dinu Lipatti Gold Medal in London, UK.
• The Polish Prize for Artistic Merits.
• The National Knight Merit Order of France.
• The Adelaide Ristori Prize, Italy.

In 2007, the Polish President Lech Kaczynski honored her with the Distinguished Service Order – Cavalry Cross. This was for her important work in promoting Polish culture through her recordings and performances of Chopin's music.

See also

In Spanish: İdil Biret para niños