Ayşe Deniz Birdal (Istanbul, 1996) studied at the Istanbul University State Conservatory from the age of 13, after which she continued her studies with Julius Berger in Augsburg. She won the First Prize in the Rudolf Matz Strings Competition, and a Second Prize in the International Johan Andreas Stein Strings Competition, where she played her own composition Sky-Cut, among others.
Birdal has played at several festivals, including the Menuhin Festival Gstaad String Academy and the Kronberg Academy Cello Festival, and has soloed with the Kaunas Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. In addition to classical-romantic repertoire, she has a great fondness for new music and music from her native land and is an enthusiastic improviser.
This CD was produced with the support of the Anner Bijlsma Award and the Cello Biennale Amsterdam. Using the prize money from the 2018 Anner Bijlsma Award, cello phenomenon Giovanni Sollima set up an intensive development program for four young international cellists – Ayşe Deniz Birdal (Turkey), Maya Fridman (Russia), Abel Selaocoe (South Africa) and Chiara Trentin (Italy). They all were looking to become far more than just soloists playing the standard repertoire. Sollima went with them in search of their musical identity. Who did they want to become in the world of music? What did they want to create? What did they want to convey to their audiences? This cd is the result of the journey MAYA/AYSE/CHIARA made during this project.