Ayla Erduran

Born in İstanbul, Ayla Erduran became a student of Karl Berger after her introduction to violin through her mother and gave her first recital accompanied by Ferdi Ştatzer at the Saray Cinema when she was ten years old. The artist graduated from the Paris National Conservatoire following her studies with Ivan Galamian and Zino Francescatti between 1946 and 1951. Working exclusively with Ivan Galamian and Zino Francescatti between 1951 and 1955 in the USA, she performed with an orchestra conducted by Thomas Schermann in her USA debut in Newark. The artist launched her concert career in Europe with a violin concerto of Glazunov accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland. A student of the twentieth century’s great virtuoso, David Oistrakh, at the Moscow Conservatoire from 1957 to 1958, Ayla Erduran was one of the six winners of the 1957 Wieniawski Competition where 120 violinists had competed. In 1958, her performance at the première of Ulvi Cemal Erkin’s violin concerto in Brussels under the composer’s conduction, has been admired by many, including Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. In addition to her concerts in Europe and the United States, Erduran gave her first major tours in Canada in 1961 and 1962; performing in 160 concerts at these tours alone. The artist toured the Middle East with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in 1963 and performed in various parts of the Anatolia. Following her première recital in London accompanied with Mithat Fenmen, Erduran was honored with the Harriet Cohen-Olga Verney Award in 1964. In 1965, her performance of Brahms’ Violin Concerto under the conduction of Rozhdestvenski at the London Albert Hall was broadcast live by BBC. Recorded and broadcast many times by the BBC after this concert, the artist participated to a concert organized for the 100th birthday anniversary of Sibelius with her performance of a violin concerto of the composer with Suisse Romande Orchestra and conductor Ernest Ansermet in Geneva. After touring Africa with Verda Erman in 1968, Erduran was awarded with the Beethoven Award in the Netherlands in 1970 and was made a State Artist by the Republic of Turkey in 1971. Alongside her concert career, the artist taught in Switzerland from 1973 until the 1990’s including a master class at the Lausanne Conservatoire. Erduran has performed as a soloist with artists like Menuhin, Szeryng, Navarra, Igor Oistrakh, Valery Oistrakh, Pikaizen, Fallot, Guy, Collins and Weinberg in double concertos. Erduran has collaborated with major orchestras including London Symphony, Suisse Romande, Berlin RIAS, Czech Philharmonic and distinguished conductors like Ernest Ansermet, Karel Ancerl, Paul Kletzki, Gennadi Rozhdetsvenski, Jean Fournet, Michel Plasson and Armin Jordan. The artist’s performances have been recorded by radios in Canada, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland, Iraq, the Netherlands and many states in the USA. Ayla Erduran’s performance of Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been recorded as a LP album. The artist’s discography includes violin-piano sonatas of Franck, Debussy and Grieg with Ayşegül Sarıca (UPR Classics); Brahms and Brunch Concertos with Richard Beck and Suisse Romande Orchestra conducted by Armin Jordan (Gallo CD). Erduran has been the first artist to perform Elgar’s Violin Concerto in Turkey. Ayla’yı Dinler Misiniz? (Do You Listen to Ayla?), a biographical novel of the artist by Evin İlyasoğlu has been published by Remzi Publishing House in 2002. The artist has performed with ‘Nelson-ex, The Roderer’, an Antonio Stradivarius violin (1710) for the recordings of a compilation dedicated to her, entitled Ayla Erduran Archive Series.

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