Benyamin Sönmez

Benyamin Sönmez — Biography

Benyamin Sönmez (16 January 1983, Bremen – 30 November 2011, Istanbul) was a Turkish classical cellist. He trained at the Moscow Conservatory, the Stuttgart State University of Music and Performing Arts, and the Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory.

In 2006 he won a prize at the Adam International Cello Festival in New Zealand, a competition chaired by Mstislav Rostropovich, and he came to be known by nicknames such as "the Paganini of the cello," "the prince of the cello," and "the sultan of the cello." He was the brother of double bassist Mehmet Sönmez.

Sönmez died at a young age, and his memory has since been honored through the annual Benyamin Sönmez Classical Music Festival held in Fethiye, which reached its thirteenth edition in 2026.