A pioneering Turkish violinist who performed widely around the world and whose career spanned many decades has died at the age of 90
The pioneering Turkish violinist Ayla Erduran died on 7 January 2025 at the age of 90, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey has reported on social media. She was 90 years old.
Honoured as a State Artist by the Republic of Turkey since 1971, Erduran was born in Istanbul in 1934. A child prodigy who initially learned the violin from her mother, she became a student of the Hungarian virtuoso Karl Berger and gave one of her first public performances at the age of 11.
In a 2018 interview with Sidni Karavil, Erduran recalled: ‘Before I got on stage I cried my eyes out because of fear. Yet I played Mozart’s D major Concerto and Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata beautifully’.
Erduran travelled widely abroad from a young age, enrolling at the Paris Conservatoire in 1946 and, upon earning her diploma, spending several years in the US, where Ivan Galamian and Zino Francescatti were among her teachers. She was also mentored by David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory.
Among the top six laureates at the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in 1957, Erduran premiered Ulvi Cemal Erkin’s Violin Concerto in the following year in Brussels, with Queen Elisabeth of Belgium in attendance.
Erduran’s prolific international career took her across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa. She appeared with such orchestras as the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Berlin RIAS, the Czech Philharmonic and Turkey’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra.
Erduran’s performances were frequently broadcast by the BBC and other radio stations, and she took part in a 100th-birthday concert in homage to Sibelius in Geneva, playing his Violin Concerto with Ernest Ansermet.
Her long and distinguished career as a teacher included a period in Switzerland from 1973 to 1990 and made Erduran a beloved mentor to generations of artists. Following her years in Lausanne and elsewhere in Switzerland, she returned permanently to Istanbul.
The first soloist to perform Elgar’s Violin Concerto in Turkey, Erduran also recorded the Brahms Violin Concerto and violin sonatas by Franck, Debussy and Grieg.
In addition to her status as State Artist, Erduran received the Harriet Cohen–Olga Verney Award in 1964 and the Beethoven Award from the Netherlands in 1970.
In a Facebook post, the pianist and composer Fazıl Say fondly recalled performing chamber music with Erduran, whom he described as ‘an exceptional violinist, a real musician’ and ‘a wounded soul’. Watching her concerts while he was growing up, Say noted that ‘we learned a lot from knowing such a free-spirited artist’.
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