Efe Baltacıgil Cello
sponsor: Patricia Tall-Takacs and Gary Takacs
Present
SCMS Debut: 2012 Summer Festival
Principal Cello of the Seattle Symphony since fall 2011, Efe Baltacıgil was previously Associate Principal Cello of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2003. Recent highlights include his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, performances of Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme with the Bilkent Symphony and the Seattle Symphony, and Brahms’ Double Concerto with violinist Juliette Kang and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. Baltacıgil performed a Brahms Sextet with Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman and Jessica Thompson at Carnegie Hall, and has participated in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project. He has toured with the group Musicians from Marlboro, and is a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society II. Named String Player of the Year in Turkey in 2013, Baltacıgil received the Peter Jay Sharp Prize, the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize, and first prizes in concerto competitions in Istanbul and New York, as well as in the Allentown (Pennsylvania) Schadt String Competition. He was the winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Baltacıgil received his bachelor’s degree from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul and an artist diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music.