Read what people are saying…
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CIPC Finalists share their thoughts on the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition
August 20, 2024
Published by Clevelandclassical.com, Daniel Hathaway
On Sunday afternoon following the concerto round with The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday and Saturday, we had the opportunity to meet with the four finalists in the atrium of the Cleveland Museum of Art to get their impressions about the innovations in this year’s Cleveland International Piano Competition, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and how it felt to be a prizewinner.
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CIPC Finals zero in on top four pianists at Severance (Aug. 9-10)
August 19, 2024
Published by ClevelandClassical.com, Daniel Hathaway
By the time that Evren Ozel, Maxim Lando, Zijian Wei, and Giuseppe Guarrera played concertos with conductor Ruth Reinhardt and The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center last weekend, their places in the winners’ circle of the Cleveland International Piano Competition were already determined.
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CIPC Semi-Finalists show more of their musical personalities
August 9, 2024
Published by ClevelandClassical.com, Daniel Hathaway
In altering the repertory requirements for the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, the organizers made the rounds much more interesting for the attendees, but probably more complicated for the jury, who now had to compare wildly different apples to oranges.
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CIPC Quarter-Finalists show their musical personalities
August 1, 2024
Published by ClevelandClassical.com, Daniel Hathaway
Relieved of some of the customary competition repertory requirements, the sixteen pianists who played in the five CIPC Quarter-Final Rounds this week were pretty much given carte blanche to share their musical personalities with the jury and audience through their own choice of repertory.
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Concert review: Geneva Lewis (violin) Evren Ozel (piano)
24 July 2023
Published by The Strad, Bruce Hodges
Bruce Hodges reports on the performance of Fazil Say, Beethoven, Lilburn and Bartók at the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA, on 4 May 2023
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Three Future Stars Having Fun at The Wallis
June 6, 2023
Published by Classical Voice, Jim Farber
It’s abundantly clear from their June 1 recital at The Wallis that pianist Evren Ozel, violist Jordan Bak, and violinist Geneva Lewis are young, very talented, and enjoy playing with each other. The only problem is there’s practically no classical repertory for violin, viola, and piano.
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Geneva Lewis and friends shine with a soft glow for Candlelight Concert Society
April 07, 2024
Published by Washington Classical Review, Charles T. Downey
Musicians, like many people, often form their closest friendships in college. New Zealand-born violinist Geneva Lewis’s collaborative bond with pianist Evren Ozel and cellist Gabriel Martins was audible in their performance Saturday evening at a Candlelight Concert Society concert at the Horowitz Center in Columbia.
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The Felicitous Three Plus One
July 1, 2024
Published by The Boston Musical Intellegencer, Lee Eiseman
In welcoming an enthusiastic full house to Rockport Chamber Music Festival’s concert on Sunday afternoon, Artistic Director Barry Shiffman let us know that he had been reluctant to program the familiar Mozart masterpiece, the Divertimento in E-Flat Major for String Trio, K. 563, until he found the “perfect players.”
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Transfigured Night at the National Museum of Asian Art; Musicians from Marlboro bring chamber music magic to DC
February 22, 2024
Published by Silent Whistle
The most compelling musicianship of the night came from pianist Evren Ozel, who did not miss an opportunity to take risks and draw unusual timbres out of the instrument during Dvořák’s Bohemian kaleidoscope of a piano trio, the Op. 90 in E minor (popularly known as the “Dumky”).
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The Future of Chamber Music
December 18, 2023
Published by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Incoming Bowers artist Evren Ozel is a pianist currently enrolled in the Artist Diploma program at New England Conservatory. He says, “[The program] is very flexible and allows me to be in school and still pursue my own career as a pianist and soloist. That’s a really nice thing.” Before beginning his official Bowers residency in the 2024–25 season, Ozel will join CMS musicians in a performance at Drew University in April 2024.
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Bard Sosnoff: Big Orchestral Sound
February 12, 2023
Published by The Millbrook Independent
Evren Ozel on piano arrived in a bolt of thunder to let the orchestra know that they were not alone and had to converse with this piano which demanded unusual hand stretches, sudden leaps, and wide-distant chords. This is a minor work that few pianists can manage.
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Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
May 11, 2023
Press Release
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) announces the nine individual artists and one ensemble selected for The Bowers Program, a highly competitive threeseason residency in which participants perform, tour, and teach alongside CMS artists.
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Appealing Balancing Act in Ashmont
MAY 10, 2023
Published by The Boston Musical Intellegencer, Vance R. Koven
Enticing as a balmy Spring day may be, Ashmont Hill Chamber Music came in with an even better offer on Sunday afternoon, an irresistible recital by violinist Geneva Lewis and pianist Evren Ozel perfectly balancing old and new, familiar and unfamiliar, soothing and challenging. The sold-out Peabody Hall at All Saints Church attested that we weren’t the only ones thus seduced.
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2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant Award Ceremony
March 28, 2023
Originally livestreamed Tuesday, March 28, at 6pm ET on WQXR
Join us LIVE from The Greene Space for the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grants announcement ceremony hosted by WQXR's Elliott Forrest. Performances by this year's recipients follow the announcement. Since the first Career Grants were awarded in 1976, there have been 171 Career Grant recipients. Past awardees include clarinetist Anthony McGill, violinist Gil Shaham, and pianist Yuja Wang. WQXR has been a broadcast partner since the first Career Grants were awarded, a relationship spanning 47 years.
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Perspectives from Mitsuko Uchida at Carnegie Hall
March 5, 2023
Published by Seen and Heard International, Rick Perdian
‘I dislike masterclasses!’ was Dame Mitsuko Uchida’s welcome to those gathered to watch her mentor four pianists at Carnegie Hall. The basis for her disdain is a personal dislike of being taught herself.
The 74-year-old pianist and conductor is especially known for her interpretations of the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann. As a Carnegie Hall Perspectives Artist, she will be a regular presence there for the next two years, after having been absent from its stages since 2009.
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Review: Evren Ozel Wows with Refined Restraint
Oct 7, 2022
Published by Third Coast Review
In listening to Evren Ozel’s excellent piano recital Wednesday afternoon, two words came to mind over and over: refined restraint. That is how this young artist approached each of the three works he performed at this week’s installment of the Dame Myra Hess Concert at the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist.
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Beethoven’s Emissary and Tourguide Presides
AUGUST 20, 2022
Published by The Boston Musical Intellegencer, Sibylle Barrasso
The young, Minneapolis-born Evren Ozel began Thursday’s Williams Hall concert for the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts with Leon Kirchner’s Interlude II. An immediate cascade of arpeggios, led to a more tranquil middle as the composition progressed. The elegant and expressive pianist then bowed and immediately launched the scary, high-wire äußerst bewegt (extremely animated) opening act of Schumann’s eight-movement Kreisleriana.
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ChamberFest Cleveland "Spirited Away" at Disciples Church
June 18, 2022
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
Kapustin and pianist Evren Ozel followed a second set of vocal quartet pieces with brilliant, rhythmically vital performances of Jascha Heifetz’s reworkings of six selections from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
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ChamberFest Cleveland opens with "Exquisite Beginnings" at CIM
June 17, 2022
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
The superb keyboardists were co-artistic director Roman Rabinovich and Evren Ozel, who in his second season as a “Rising Star” has earned a permanent place in the ChamberFest firmament. Facing each other at twin Steinways, the two played as one, deftly coordinating pearly runs and expressive dynamic changes.
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ChamberFest Cleveland: catching up with pianist & rising star Evren Ozel
June 8, 2022
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
Born in Minneapolis in 1999, pianist Evren Ozel has established a stellar reputation in Northeast Ohio.
He has competed twice in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition at Oberlin, making it into the finals in 2013, when he also won the Audience Prize.
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Making a Case for the Unfamiliar
April 5, 2022
Published by The Boston Musical Intelligencer
Once again choosing an eclectic mix of chamber music primarily from the last two centuries, including a world premiere, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble featured four unfamiliar works and one chestnut evoking vivid and contrasting emotions. On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at Boston’s First Church, Chameleon advocated persuasively for making these discoveries more familiar.
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Listen: Pianist Evren Ozel performs an all-Chopin recital at the Ordway
Oct 28, 2021
Published by YourClassical
Minneapolis pianist Evren Ozel has competed in the International Chopin Competition.
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Warsaw-bound Minnesota pianist shows swagger – and subtlety – in send-off concert
Sep 13, 2021
Published by StarTribune
If Frederic Chopin was "the poet of the piano," how might you decide which pianist expresses that poetry best? Ultimately, it all depends on the tastes of the judges.
That is to say: Good luck, Evren Ozel. The 22-year-old pianist from Minneapolis soon will be on his way to Warsaw, one of six Americans among 87 pianists in one of the world's most prestigious piano contests, the International Chopin Competition.
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Pianist's Currents Honor Russell Sherman
Dec 7, 2020
Published by The Boston Musical Intelligencer
“Thank you all for braving the circumstances to hear some live music,” said pianist Evren Ozel live at the Calderwood Hall. Almost “live” describes the subsequent YouTube video of the free Sunday concert given on November 29th before 19 spectators.
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At 21, Minnesota piano prodigy is living his dream of becoming a world-class artist
Mar 10, 2020
Published by StarTribune
A gentle, introspective expression passed over Evren Ozel’s face as he began playing the melody of Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11.
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Finalists tackle concertos in penultimate round of Chopin Competition
Mar 2, 2020
Published by South Florida Classical Review
The National Chopin Piano Competition’s final concerto round commenced Saturday night at Miami- Dade County Auditorium with two pianists electing to play Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 in E minor. Evren Ozel, 21 years old from Minneapolis, emerged the stronger interpreter and more technically assured musician.
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Rising Stars steal the show at ChamberFest’s Folklorica (June 23)
Jul 5, 2019
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
There are rare, perfect moments in chamber music where minds meld and hearts coalesce in beautiful synergy. Violinist Nathan Meltzer and pianist Evren Ozel, both young phenoms, did just that with their pre-concert performance of Franck’s Violin Sonata during ChamberFest Cleveland’s Folklorica on Sunday, June 23 in CWRU’s Harkness Chapel. On an afternoon packed with stellar musicianship, the two distilled Franck down to its exquisite essence. I doubt I will ever hear a better rendition.
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ChamberFest Cleveland stuns with season opener (June 13)
Jun 24, 2019
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
ChamberFest Cleveland descended from the heavens with “Under the Influence,” the inaugural concert of its eighth season on June 13 in CIM’s Mixon Hall. Exquisite interpretation, unparalleled finesse, and delightful music-making tied the evening’s selections together in performances of simply the highest caliber.
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ChamberFest Cleveland: a conversation with Young Artist Evren Ozel
Jun 10, 2019
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
From its inception, the nurturing of young artists has been an important part of ChamberFest Cleveland’s mission. That tradition will continue during the Festival’s opening concert on Thursday, June 13 at 7:30 pm in CIM’s Mixon Hall, when pianist Evren Ozel joins clarinetist Franklin Cohen and cellist Peter Wiley for a performance of Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio in B-flat. “It’s an unbelievable opportunity,” Ozel said by telephone. “This is my first time playing that piece and to get to do it with these great masters of their instruments is very exciting.”
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Finding a Musical Ideal in the Vermont Woods
Jul 27, 2018
Published by The New York Times
MARLBORO, Vt. — The projectile whizzed past Tessa Lark’s ear just as she was trying to put into words what makes the Marlboro Music School and Festival here so special. Ms. Lark, a violinist, was eating dinner last Saturday at a long table crowded with musicians and their families. Later in the evening, she was to perform Brahms’s Piano Quintet alongside the pianist Mitsuko Uchida, Marlboro’s artistic director.
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CIPC Young Artists Competition: Senior Division Semifinal Round (May 19)
May 19, 2015
Published by ClevelandClassical.com
Evren Ozel, 15, from the USA, began his set with sensitive, probing playing of J.S. Bachʼs B-flat Minor Prelude and Fugue from WTC I. Ozel shone a little spotlight on every entrance of the fugue subject, even when it lurked as fragments in the counterpoint.