Can Çakmur

Can Çakmur (Pronounced: Djahn Tchakmur) is the first prize winner of the 2018 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition (where he also was awarded the chamber music prize) and the 2017 Scottish International Piano Competition.

His recordings for the label BIS have been received enthusiastically by the international press and have been awarded two consecutive ICMA Awards (a first in the awards’ history) for the Solo Recording of the Year and Young Artist of the Year, as well as Choc de Classica, Diapason d’Or, Album of the Month by International Piano and full marks by Crescendo, Gramophone, Pizzicato and many more.

Can is currently working on an 11 album survey of Schubert’s complete major works in combination with other pieces inspired by Schubert for BIS Records which will be released between 2023 and the 200th anniversary of Schubert’s death, 2028. Praising the Vol. 1 of the series, Bryce Morrison (International Piano) wrote “Truly great recordings of Schubert’s piano sonatas are rare (Schnabel, Kempff, Brendel and, more recently, Volodos come to mind), but I know of few to match Can Çakmur’s supple and penetrating confirmation of Schubert’s genius.”

Can has performed in a variety of concert halls worldwide, including Wigmore Hall in London, Glasgow Concert Hall, Eindhoven Muziekgebouw, Tokyo Opera City, Suntory Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton as well as the most prestigious concert venues in his homeland, Turkey. He has appeared in the most important classical music festivals in the country including the Istanbul Music Festival, where he headlined the opening concert in 2015 with Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra under Sascha Goetzel. Recent highlights include the Japanese premiere of Thomas Adés’ In Seven Days at the Suntory Hall with Yomiuri

Nippon Symphony Orchestra conducted by Masato Suzuki, the closing concert of Festa Musica MUZA Kawasaki with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tadaaki Otaka and an excellently received recital debut at Fondation Louis Vuitton. Can’s recitals and concerts have been recorded and broadcast by BBC 3, Radio Musique France, Arte, NHK, Turkish National Radio and Television, Deutschlandfunk and Classic FM.

Among Can’s regular chamber music partners are Veriko Tchumburidze and Dorukhan Doruk (as Vecando Trio formed in 2021), cellist Alexandre Castro-Balbi and double-bassist Dominik Wagner. Alexandre and Can are currently working on a recording of Beethoven’s complete works for Passavant, to be released in 2024.
Can was appointed to a piano professorship at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance in 2022, at the age of 24, becoming one of the youngest professors to date at the institute.

His first musical impulses came with Emre Şen, Jun Kanno and Marcella Crudeli. He has later studied with Diane Andersen privately and with Grigory Gruzman at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar. His studies were made possible by generous guidance and support by G & S Pekinel Young Musicians on World Stages.