Evren Ozel, a gifted pianist and student at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, performed a program of Haydn, Chopin, and Ravel on Thursday, March 26, in the newly expanded Performance Center at the M. Steinert & Sons piano showroom in the Natick Mall.
J.S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in B-flat minor, WTC I, BWV 867
Haydn: Piano Sonata No. 33 in C minor, Hob. XIV:20
III. Finale: Allegro
Chopin: 3 Mazurkas, Op. 56
No. 1 in B major
No. 2 in C major
No. 3 in C minor
Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit
Ondine
Le gibet
Scarbo
Sixteen-year old Evren Ozel, from Minneapolis, MN began his musical education at the MacPhail Suzuki program at age 3-1/2. At age 8, he began lessons with Dr. Paul Wirth. He has studied theory and composition with Dr. Sarah Miller and conducting with Courtney Lewis. Evren has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the LaCrosse Symphony Orchestra, the Young Artist World Piano Festival Orchestra, the Mississippi Valley Orchestra, the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony and has accompanied dancers of the James Sewell Ballet in live performances.
He was a first prize winner in several Minnesota state and regional piano and composition competitions, including the Schubert Club Piano Competition, Thursday Musical Piano Competition and National Federation of Music Clubs Composition Contest. Evren has also been an avid chamber musician and, as the pianist of Quartet Tzigane, won first prize in the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Youth Chamber Music Competition 2012, advanced to the semi-final round of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition 2012 and was featured on NPR’s “From the Top.”
Evren was the youngest semi-finalist in the 2013 International Junior e-Piano Competition and participated in Boston University Tanglewood Institute 2013, where he performed at Seiji Ozawa Hall in the Honors Recital as well as in a master class given by Lang Lang.
In 2014, Evren appeared as Showcase Artist on MPR’s Minnesota Varsity, was recognized with a merit scholarship by the National Chopin Foundation of the United States and received the 5th prize and the Audience prize at the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition at Oberlin Conservatory.
Evren is currently resuming his academic studies at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA and continuing his musical education at New England Conservatory in Boston under the tutelage of Wha-Kyung Byun. In his spare time, he loves to go for walks in nature and search YoutTube and iTunes for musical treasures.