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Mertol Demirelli was born in 1996 in Ankara. He began his music studies when he was four years old, private piano lessons followed when he was five. Displaying noticeable talent at the special admittance examinations, Mertol was accepted to the Bilkent University, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Music Preparatory Primary School with full scholarship. He studied piano with Oya Ünler for four years and with Ersin Onay for a year. Mertol also continued his high school education and followed a special program for talented children at this school by taking courses on Music Theory, Ear Training, with Orhun Orhon, Composition with Turgut Pöğün, Orhun Orhon and Onur Türkmen and Violin with Eda Delikçi. He was accepted to the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Belgium) in 2010 with full scholarship from Mr Bernard and Mrs Valérie Van Hool and studied piano with Abdel Rahman El Bacha for four years. In 2014, he began to study piano under the direction of Maria-Joāo Pires who invited him to the Partitura Project to share the stage on regular occasions the following year. In 2016, he entered the Haute École de Musique de Vaud-Valais-Fribourg (HEMU), becoming a student of Ricardo Castro and promoted to complete the program in two years. As the only pianist, accepted to the master soloist program in 2018 and completed with a special award. Simultaneously, he started the Piano and Direction from the keyboard course in the Fiesole Music School (Italy, Florence) in 2018. He just started Piano Pedagogy as his second master program at the Haute école de Musique de Genève-Neuchâtel (HEM) in September 2021. He continues his soloist studies with Ricardo Castro.
At the age of seven in 2003, he won the IBLA Grand Prize Italy. The price included organization of concerts worldwide. In January 2004, Mertol gave concerts at Newcastle (England) in February 2004, at New York including Carnegie Hall and Arkansas-Little Rock. At age 10, he won the first prize in the 7-15 age category of Onay Art piano competition in Istanbul. In 2011, he has been granted a prize "Young artist of the year, in Germany" during Munich concert by The Rupert Gabler Foundation. At age 23, he won the second prize in the Concert Pianist category of Concours International de piano d'île de France in 2019. He became the winner of the Yamaha Swiss Piano Competition in 2020. He won the third prize in the VII.Vigo Piano Competition in 2023.
Between 2003-2011, he was recognized as a child prodigy and gave over 100 concerts in Turkey and internationally. Some of his important concerts; he performed W.A. Mozart’s Concerto for Piano No.11 when he was 8. At 9, the Piano Concerto No.12, at 11, the Piano Concerto No.23. When he was 10 in 2007, at the opening of 35th International Istanbul Music Festival, he played the J.S. Bach Concerto for Two Pianos, in C minor with Idil Biret at Hagia Eirene Museum. At 12, he played Mozart Concerto For Two Pianos with Hüseyin Sermet at Istanbul and Beethoven Triple Concerto at Munich. At 14, he played at the Belgium premiere of Mozart’ s Violin and Piano Concerto, KV Anh. 56 (315f) in March 2011 at Brussels at Flagey. Demirelli performed at the organisations at that time such as Akbank Piano Days, Mersin International Music Festival, Antalya International Piano Festival as well as special concerts at Turkish National Grand Assembly, Vehbi Koç Foundation. In 2004, he played at the special vocations which Prof. Dr. Ihsan Doğramaci gave to President of Azerbaijan; Ilham Aliyev, in 2005 the IMF Vice President; Ann Krueger and in 2007 President of Israel; Shimon Peres. He performed with Fazil Say at his Ayvalık and Antalya International Piano Festival concerts in 2004. In 2005 with the invitation of The Turkish Foreign Ministry he gave concerts in Jordan, in 2008 Lithuania and Switzerland in Geneva at Palais des Nations of UN. He also performed with The Spivakov Genious Children at Boğaziçi University in 2007. He played at the Spivakov Music Festival at Moskow in 2008 and at the Summer of Culture Festival at Bratislava in 2009. He played at Belgium Royal Palace in November 2010.
In 2011, he played Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 with Cem Mansur and the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra of Turkey at Istanbul and Munich. He played Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Piano (MWV O4) with Jean-Claude Casadesus and The Sinfonia Varshovia at the opening concert of Queen Elisabeth Musical Voyage 2011 in Istanbul. He played Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 in October 2013, at the opening of concert season in Istanbul. He gave a recital at Barcelona University and played at Beethoven Festival in Brussels in 2014. He performed at Vexin Festival in 2012,2014.
In 2018, he played Liszt Piano Concerto No.1 with Ricardo Castro and Bahia Youth Orchestra (NEOJIBA) in Brazil concerts being within the scope of preparations for the European tour with Martha Argerich and gave a recital in Brussels at Zita.
He played Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 with Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Symphony Orchestra in February 2019 and Mozart Piano Concerto No.23 in February 2023. He gave recitals in Brussels (March2019-Max van der Linden Festival, November 2019-QEMC), Rome (October 2019-The Waldensian Church in Piazza Cavour), Paris (February 2020-American Church). In March 2020, he played Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4 with Edoardo Rosadini and Shaborùz Quartet in Brazil at Parque do Queimado. In October 2020, he played Mozart Piano Concerto No.20 with Nicolas Chalvin and HEMU Orchestra in a live broadcast concert in Lausanne. In May 2021, he played Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4 with the strings quinted formed by HEMU Orchestra members. He played Brahms Horn Trio, Op.40 with his group, the Trio Octavia, including Gabriel Potier (Horn), Olha Semchyshyn (Violin) and released it on CD. Demirelli and Emile Abeille (violin) played Brahms, Turina and De Falla in the recital they performed as a duo in Geneva (Galerie La Primaire) in December 2021. With the Trio Kapital they formed with the participation of Léonardo Capezzali (cello), they performed the Fauré, Granados and Turina Piano Trios at Martigny (Fondation Louis Moret) in February and June 2022 and also in July 2022 at Geneva (Musique et Vie) and interpreted the works of Brahms and Arensky in November 2022 at Geneva (Le Monde Á Part). In April 2022, with Pianist Giorgi Gigashvili interpreted Stravinsky the Spring Rite (Piano Party Event-HEM) in Geneva. He gave a recital at Istanbul Boys' High School (IEL) in March 2022. He took part in the recording and concert performance of Swiss Composer Jean Froidevaux's "Les degrés inspirants" in December 2022 (Conservatoire de I'Quest Vaudois, Nyon) with Sarah Velasco (violin), Lina Luzzi (cello), Haoran Wang (clarinet).
In January 2023, with the Trio Kapital, he played in two seperate concerts (Fondation de Wolff & Salle Frank Martin). He played Albrechtsberger, Weber, Bizet, Guilmant, Crespo, Calvache with Nadia Giner Enguix (trombone) and also Schubert Wanderer Fantasie as solo in Le Lieu (Église Du Lieu). Demirelli, who took the stage immediately after the pianist's illness during the Master Class at the Geneva Chopin Festival in October 2022, was invited to give the Geneva Chopin Association 26th Music Season Opening Recital. At the concert in April 2023, he received great acclaim by performing Bach-Busoni Chaconne and Chopin 4 Ballads. In May 2023, he played the trios of Beethoven and Mendelsshon with the Trio Kapital (Lyceum Club International).
He has also been broadcast on Bavarian Radio, Swiss Radio Television (RTS), Turkish Radio Television (TRT) and CNN Turk.
He attended Gulsin Onay, Muhittin Demiriz, Idil Biret, Edna Golandsky, Dmitri Bashkirov, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Pietro De Maria, Giovanni Bellucci, Stephen Kovacevich, Charles Richard Hamelin, Gabriel Stern, Philippe Cassard, Nelson Goerners master-classes. He attented chamber music course and worked with Hartmut Ometzberger and Diana Cummings in Graz, Austria.
Mertol Demirelli has given concerts with orchestras including the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Antalya, Bursa, Çukurova, İstanbul State Symphony Orchestras, The Borusan İstanbul Philharmonic, CRR, Eskişehir Municipality, Doğuş Children’s, Presidential Symphony of Turkey, Kaunas Symphony, The Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, The Sinfonia Varshovia Orchestras, HEMU and NEOJIBA. The conductors he collaborated with are Augustin Dumay, Burak Tüzün, Can Okan, Ender Sakpınar, Edoardo Rosadini, Gürer Aykal, Hakan Şensoy, Işın Metin, İbrahim Yazıcı, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Kevin Griffiths, Modestas Pitrenas, Nicolas Chalvin, Oğuzhan Kavruk, Rengim Gökmen, Ricardo Castro and Roberto Gianola.
Contact: mertoldemirelli(at)gmail.com This page was last updated on 20.05.2023