Ensemble Phœnix Basel

Exceptional Turkish musician Aydın Esen can hardly be categorized. His main influences are jazz and 20th century classical music, the boundaries of which he crosses seemingly effortlessly as a virtuoso pianist and composer. Aydın Esen was born in Istanbul, where he began playing the piano at an early age. In Boston, he completed a degree at Berklee College of Music, which normally takes four years, in one year. After one of Aydın’s sessions with Pat Metheny in Boston, the latter simply asked, “How did you get so good?” Since his studies, he has won numerous prizes for his compositions as well as as a pianist (including First Prize at the Paris International Piano Competition in 1989). At “Big Basel Festival” EPhB will premiere a new work by Aydın Esen, which was composed for this formation on behalf of the “Big Basel” festival.

“Aydın Esen has been running his own laboratory for decades, pushing his music forward, away from all trends. As a listener, he gives us something like finds from this other world, which he is able to travel with his highly developed musical consciousness.” (Wolfgang Muthspiel)