Aydın Esen

Aydın Esen — Biography

Aydın Esen is a Turkish jazz musician and composer, born 12 May 1962 in Istanbul, who works on piano, keyboards and electronics. He began music lessons at five and spent thirteen years at a conservatory before travelling to the United States on a four-year scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, where he is said to have finished the entire course load within a single year. He went on to study at the New England Conservatory and at Juilliard, and during this period had the chance to play alongside Gary Burton, Eddie Gomez, Pat Metheny and Emily Remler.

In 1989 he took first prize at the Martial Solal International Piano Competition in Paris, and by August 2000 Jazztime magazine reported that, asked to name the world's finest pianist, Chick Corea had answered with the name of a Turkish musician few readers would recognise: Aydın Esen. He has also worked with Dave Liebman and Wolfgang Muthspiel, and his playing is generally classed within modern creative and fusion jazz. His composing extends to film, where he is credited as the composer of the 1995 feature The Track, and his discography as a leader spans albums such as Pictures, Anadolu, Timescape and Dialogo.

He performed in Cyprus in 2013 and opened the new Arter building in Istanbul with a concert in 2019, the same year he appeared on a recording by Randy Esen alongside Ra'kalam Bob Moses. In January 2020 his composition Scape-X received its premiere at the Big Basel Festival, performed by Ensemble Phoenix Basel with Esen himself as soloist.