Artistic Director

With his exceptional pianistic artistry, Fazıl Say has been captivating audiences and critics around the world for over 30 years — in a way that is uniquely his own, especially in today’s increasingly structured and commercialised classical music world. A concert with Fazıl Say is never just a performance. It is more immediate, more open, more electrifying. In short: it speaks directly to the heart.

Since the beginning of his career, he has performed with many renowned American and European orchestras and numerous leading conductors, building up a diverse repertoire ranging from Bach to Viennese Classical Romantic and contemporary music, including his own compositions for piano. Guest performances have taken Fazıl Say to countless countries on all five continents, alongside numerous appearances as a chamber musician.

As a composer, Fazıl Say has received commissions from leading institutions including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the BBC, Salzburg Festival, WDR, Munich Philharmonic, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Wiener Konzerthaus, Dresden Philharmonic, and the Fondation Louis Vuitton, among others. His oeuvre encompasses six symphonies, two oratorios, several solo concertos, as well as numerous works for piano and chamber ensembles.

In the 2025/2026 season, Fazıl Say is the Artist in Residence at both the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival. During these residencies, he performed with longtime partner orchestras—including the Camerata Salzburg, the hr-Sinfonieorchester, and the NDR Radiophilharmonie—and witnessed premieres of his own newly commissioned works presented by both festivals.

Say performs his latest piano concerto, “Mother Earth”, in a series of high-profile country premieres including the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Helsinki Philharmonic, the RAI Torino, and the Orchestre National de Belgique, among others.

In recital, Fazıl Say performs this season at major venues including the Berlin Philharmonie, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Southbank Centre in London, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Cologne Philharmonie, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Muziekgebouw Amsterdam. He also appears in several cities across Europe, including Paris, Toulouse, Rome, Milan, Cremona, Bologna, Utrecht, and Martigny.

As a composer, Fazıl Say has seen the premiere of his Mandolin Concerto - commissioned by Avi Avital - at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in the 2025/2026 season. Additional premieres will include a string quartet commissioned by the Goldmund Quartet and a concerto for ancient lyre, commissioned by the Thessaloniki State Orchestra, which premiered at Vienna’s Musikverein.

Say’s album, Oiseaux Tristes, released in September 2024 on Warner Classics, was awarded the 2025 OPUS KLASSIK Award in the Solo Instrumental category.