Biography

Hande Dalkilic was born in Ankara, Turkey. After initial piano lessons with Prof. Guherdal Karamanoglu Cakirsoy, she started her academic training in Bilkent University’s Faculty of Music and Performing Arts in 1989. Here, she studied with Prof. Ersin Onay up to the level of doctorate, cultivating her prowess and her musical formation, which had already begun to mature and distinguish at young ages. During this period and afterwards, she studied and discussed musical ideas with distinguished pianists and scholars such as György Sandor, Sebastian Benda and Prof. George Sava. From the very early stages of her career, Hande Dalkilic attracted notice, fostered by her researcher side, and nourished by her elegant artistic perception. It is through these qualities that she has attained a mature interpretation and amassed a wide repertoire at a young age.

Her first CD, which includes the world premier of A. Adnan Saygun’s Op.76 Piano Sonata, was released in 2000 under the BMP label. This recording was re-released in 2007, again on the BMP label. She also became the editor of Saygun’s op.76 Sonata (hand-writing) which was published by Peer Music Classical (Hamburg) in 2012.Ms. Dalkilic has also recorded Saygun’s Op. 34, 1st. Piano Concerto (BMP), Muammer Sun’s “Country Colours ” for solo piano (BMP and KALAN), Cemal Resit Rey’s “Variations on an Istanbul Folk Song” for piano and orchestra, and the complete solo piano works of Ulvi Cemal Erkin (KALAN). The album “Tunes of The Upper Euphrates” (Yukarı Fırat Ezgileri) (KALAN) consists of 9 folk-songs, which were dedicated to the artist by the composer Cetin Isikozlu. Her vast work on Turkish composers is an indication of the artist’s consciously chosen and carefully shaped professional career as a performer of Turkish composers and a curator of their music. As a result, she pays particular attention to the works of Turkish composers during her concerts abroad. Her last album “My Favourite Romantics” that includes works of Romantic Era composers such as Chopin, Liszt and Gottschalk was recently released by Kalan Music Label.

Dalkilic has participated in important festivals, including the 34th International Sofia Music Festival, the International Cartage Festival in Tunisia 2002, the 18th, 22nd, 27thand 33thInternational Ankara Music Festivals, the 5th International Antalya Piano Festival, 9th and 14th International Bellapais Festival in North Cyprus, the D-Marin Turgut Reis 5th International Music Festival, the “Piano Echos” 14th International Piano Festival in Monferrato, Italy, the 30thInternational Sarajevo Winter Festival in 2014, 11th, the Tallinn Chamber Music Festival and the 5thInternational “Marile Serate Musicale” Chamber Music Festival of Romania and the 52nd Dimitria Festival in Thessaloniki, Greece. Besides her guest soloist performances with all the Turkish State Symphonies, private and foreign orchestras, Hande Dalkilic has also given recitals and chamber music concerts in such countries as Austria, Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Czech Republic, Egypt, England, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Holland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Tunisia, Ukraine and U.S.A.

She got her Associate Professor degree in March 2006 and then her Professor degree on November 2013 in the Hacettepe Ankara State Conservatory, where she currently teaches. Besides her role as Turkish representative for the European Piano Teachers Association, she continues her career as a soloist both home and abroad, alongside her frequent radio and TV broadcasts. Her profound and genuine interpretations, coupled with a powerful technique, continue to shape a virtuosity that appeals to ever broader audiences. www.HandeDalkilic.com