|  
  |  
  |  
  |  
RSS
  |  
  |  
February 11, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pianist Alice Sara Ott makes her first ever concert appearance in Turkey

17 March 2010 / RUMEYSA KIGER , İSTANBUL
Alice Sara Ott, the young German-Japanese pianist who has been impressing the classical music scene with her concerts in Europe and Japan from an early age, will make her first ever appearance in İstanbul tonight as part of the İstanbul Recitals monthly concert series at the Mustafa Kemal Center (MKM).
The young musician’s encounter with classical music dates back to a concert she was taken to when she was three. Due to her limited vocabulary she was not able to express her feelings or thoughts in words at that time, but she was deeply moved by the experience and thought perhaps she could share her feelings through music with people around her. “The powerful expression of the music made such an impression that I said to my mother I also want to become a pianist,” the 21-year-old artist said during an interview with Today’s Zaman.

At the age of 4, Ott started piano lessons with a Hungarian teacher. At the age of 13 she was awarded the most promising artist at the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy Competition, and two years later she was given first prize in the Silvio Bengali International Piano Competition, which she took part in as the youngest contestant.

Commenting on her success that came at such an early age, the humble pianist says that it is never one person alone who is succeeding, but the help, the support and the love of the many, many people around her. “It is very important for me to keep learning and to be thankful in every moment,” Ott said, adding that she does not feel any responsibility because of the prizes but that every musician should feel an immense responsibility for the music itself.

Following her debut album, “Études d’exécution transcendante,” which featured pieces from Liszt, Ott recently released her second record on the same Deutsche Grammophon label. Her new album includes the complete waltzes of Chopin with which she will delight the Turkish audience tonight.

“I’ve always been fascinated by Chopin’s waltzes. He composed them all through his life, from early youth until shortly before his death. His whole life and his personality are reflected in the waltzes. ... They say that home isn’t a place but a feeling. I can identify with how torn Chopin felt, because I also grew up and live between two cultures. Neither in Germany nor in Japan do I have a proper homeland. In both countries I’m regarded as a foreigner. For me, too, music is the only place where I really feel at home,” Ott stresses.

Playing with an orchestra is also very special for Ott. Her debut orchestral recording featuring the first piano concertos of Tchaikovsky and Liszt, with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Thomas Hengelbrock, will also be released this year. “There is nothing more beautiful than to speak and talk to people through music and to create a common music and atmosphere. And even if I am playing many concerts with the same orchestra, every stage is different and we all together have to be flexible in the ‘moment.’ It is like chamber music,” she says.

The Munich-based artist is currently a student at Mozarteum Salzburg and studies with professor Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. For more information, visit http://www.alice-sara-ott.com

 
Weather
City>>
ISTANBUL
Today Sun Mon
-1C°
6C°
3C°
8C°
4C°
10C°